Vincent Meessen‘s Vita Nova will be shown during day two of the colloquium UN ENJEU DE MASSE: de la diffusion de la photographie à la gestion des archives, organised by l’Institut pour la photographie and co-produced with Les Rencontres d’Arles
03/07/2019, 15-17h
Vita Nova
HD Video, 27′, sound & colour, 2009
Vita Nova is the original title of a novel by Roland Barthes that only exists in the form of preparatory notes. The book was never realised. Vincent Meessen repeats the title of this “future work” and, through lack of substance, adopts the dividing line between criticism and narrative. Vita Nova questions the realism – by pretending to be a documentary essay – as a story-discourse, where the mythology never ceases to torment the documentary’s will towards truthfulness. A cover of Paris Match from 1955, known from Barthes’ Mythologies publication (1957), shows a cadet who salutes the French flag. In Vita Nova this notorious icon of postcolonial criticism, becomes an archive loaded with hidden meaning.
UN ENJEU DE MASSE: de la diffusion de la photographie à la gestion des archives
Théâtre municipal Arles
34 Boulevard Georges Clemenceau
13200 Arles, France
02 – 03/06/2019
Two days of presentations, talks, projections and lectures in the Théâtre municipal d’Arles in the company of researchers, artists, conservators and commissioners.
The second day will be dedicated to the theme of the research support programme launched by the institute in 2018: Photography, object of dissemination.