ANTOINE SEGUIN
Les Allées Du Château
«It’s late afternoon in November, at the verge of a french municipality like many others. Since my last visit, something has changed in the landscape. Between the cemetery and the most off-centered houses, paths are emerging. It’s sunday, nobody’s around, the place is soulless.
Time goes by, seasons change, and so does the landscape. Layers of asphalt unroll on the fallow fields. Roses flower along the deserted roads. “Belle-époque” streetlights blossom here and there, too. The stage is set. Though, as time passes by, the site freezes and weeds cover up the flower beds, overflowing the footpaths and the roads…
I keep coming here at more or less regular intervals, always on the week-ends. Negatives are piling up. I am becoming aware of my role as a witness. It’s a necessity for me to keep documenting the evolution of this place.
Stacks of cinderblocks are rising between mounds of greasy earth. At the bottom of holes, slabs harden. Quickly, the first house is standing on its foundations. Then, everything follows, others emerge from the ground, at different stages of completion. On each one of my visits, the advancement is obvious. Subtle variations distinguish the houses : the tint of a coating, the molding of a door, the color of shutters, the number of windows…
Soon, I won’t be alone anymore. The first inhabitants will appear. Children will flourish in the streets. Life always finds its way.
Birth of a piece of a XXIst century ‘s town. Not that of the year 2000, with its glass and steel skycrapers and its flying cars… But one that “keeps its name silent” and that appears, discretely, at the edge of a french municipality like many others, a late afternoon in November…»
- translated by Ab.
© Antoine Seguin