Rima Samman
L'amour se porte autour du cou
November 21, 2024 > January 18, 2025
In resonance with the 17th Lyon Biennale - Contemporary Art

“Love is worn around the neck” is a series taken from the family album of my parents, my uncles, aunts, cousins. An ordinary family of modern times, scattered to the four corners of the world, because of the different wars marking the history of Lebanon, my native country. The memory of my family is attached to the idea of the bond, of welcome and of hospitality in all circumstances.

Love is worn around the neck mixes ID photos and group photos. Hand coloring allows me to call to me loved ones who died a long time ago and to give them a new life. I re-appropriate in the present the past that they bequeathed to me. Not having children myself, I felt the need to leave my mark on my family album, before passing it on to the next generations. For me, it is a vital gesture that saves from the shipwreck a memory that we rarely have the opportunity to summon in the whirlwind of an uprooted life.

I have often injected a lot of my personal and private life into my work. In this sense, I feel very close today to an artist like Sophie Calle who has always placed her life at the heart of her work.

With Sophie Calle, we cannot say who takes precedence over what? Is it her life that overflows into her work? Or is it her work that spills over into her life? Obviously, my current approach is inspired by her open way of archiving her life or THE life with the humor, mischief, inventiveness and melancholy that characterize her.

From a visual point of view, L'amour se porte autour du cou is similar to Saynètes comiques (1974) by Christian Boltanski. In his black and white photographs colored with pastel, Christian Boltanski recreated false childhood memories through play and simulation, by putting himself in the role of different members of his family. The connection that can be made between L'amour se porte autour du cou and Saynètes comiques is located in the precise place of a working method that consists of realizing a concept, using the smallest, simplest and most accessible means possible. And in the place of an aesthetic specific to the system of resourcefulness and craftsmanship, where unexpected forms arouse astonishment and emotion.

Rima Samman