Ongoing residency with the town of Grandpré, in the Ardennes of France.
This project is titled ‘La Vojo Returne’, after the Esperanto first-edition translated book of E. M. Remarque’s Der Weg Zurück (The Way Back or The Road Back). It is commonly regarded as the sequel to his 1929 novel All Quiet on the Western Front, and reflects on what it is to be human – family, loss, transience, dislocation and memory – and whether anything has been learnt as the consequence of the Great War.
Inspired by seven German WWI negatives bought from eBay and on-line pandemic lockdown research, to identify the location – the small town of Grandpré in rural Ardennes, France – I began collecting postcards from the same place and period sent home by German soldiers. I was particularly struck by how they were perhaps the most complete visual document of the place, and in my pandemic isolation, far more comprehensive and informative than current Google Streetview or online map portals.
These postcards have begun an ongoing dialogue around ‘a sense of place’ with Grandpré inhabitants, through the juxtaposition of the postcards’ liminal spaces and their infra-ordinary translated Sütterlin messages. At a time when we need to quietly reflect on what it is to be human, especially during these times of a collective post-pandemic and political introspection, I have begun to work on translating the cards with Leeds University and a specialist translator from Braunschweig, Germany, and conversing with residents in Grandpré to inform research and understanding of this landscape, how a memory of place and its experience informs a sense of self, in advance of making new photographic, audio and video work. A series of residencies in Grandpré are taking place with the support of the Mayor and a working sub-committee. A Facebook group has been established with 420+ members – a collection of residents, exiles and interested parties – where similar postcard collections are shown, memories shared and stories discussed.
My ACE ‘Develop Your Creative Practice’ funding during 2023 allowed me to spend time establishing a network of partners for engagement, collaboration and output. This project is a testbed for new approaches and strategies, allowing me the opportunity to explore new visual output.
Illustrated are the negatives and the first postcard that confirmed the location and name of the town, taken from the same viewpoint – the terrace of the town’s chateau.
See also the development post for further details.
