L'amour se porte autour du cou

L'amour se porte autour du cou is a series taken from the family album of my parents, my uncles, aunts, cousins. An ordinary modern-day family, scattered across the four corners of the world, due to the various wars marking the history of Lebanon, my native country. The memory of my family is attached to the idea of connection, welcome and unfailing hospitality. This series mixes identity photos and group photos. Hand coloring allows me to call loved ones who died long ago to me and give them new life. I reclaim 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 subsequent generations. For me, it is a vital gesture that saves from 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. At Sophie Calle, we can't say who takes precedence over what? Is it her life that overflows into her work? or is it her work that spreads throughout 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 plastic point of view, L'amour se porte autour du cou is similar to Saynètes Comiques (1974) by Christian Boltanski. In his black and white pastel-colored photographs, Christian Boltanski recreated, through play and simulacrum, false childhood memories by portraying himself in the role of different members of his family. The connection that can be made to L'amour se porte autour du cou and Saynètes Comiques, is located at the precise point of a working method which consists of realizing a concept, using the smallest means at hand, as simple and accessible as 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