Maryvonne Arnaud installs a man’s and a woman’s hand, palm out-stretched, etched in the floor of the new law courts of the Melun city built by Françoise-Hélène Jourda
By their great size, these images make it possible to enter the memories of one’s life, accumulated in the lines, in the intimate details of the skin or the tracks of previous wounds. But it’s an illusionary opportunity, since our exploration remains incomplete.
These offered palms, seemingly open as an interface between « I » and « the other », maintain the filiation with the primitive hands of the art at the dawn of humanity.When walking on these photographs set in the floor, one should remember this arrogant and disenchanted text by Jean-Paul Sartre, to conclude his biography:
« At the end, what’s left?
A whole man
Composed of all men
And as good as all of them
And no better than any. »
