Le temps arrêté : à la recherche d’un lieu de mémoire

This exhibition is the prelude to a large-scale cultural project and a survey of a remarkable, little-known site : the Domaine de la Ferté-Vidame. Numerous constructions, demolitions and development projects have punctuated the life of this estate, which once belonged to the Duc de Saint-Simon and to King Louis-Philippe. Now owned by the Conseil Général, it benefits from significant investment for the rehabilitation and upkeep of the park.

Artists and designers work on the site in coherence and resonance with the place, gradually contributing to the park’s original metamorphosis and connecting this heritage site, fallen into disuse, with contemporary creation. Four photographers were invited to present their own, previously unseen vision of the site, recalling Perec’s epigraph to « La Vie mode d’emploi », borrowed from Jules Verne : « Look with all your eyes, look ».

Marie Combes – Patrick Renaud, a vision sublimated through the use of the pinhole camera.

Thibaud Cuisset, a raw, pictorial vision, unadorned and descriptive, yet infinitely sensitive and poetic.

Stéphane Couturier, a framing technique that is always surprising to look at…

Georges Rousse…

(Original text of 2006, machine translated in 2026.)