Until December 20, the Cratère d'Alès is exhibiting sixteen portraits of young people from the neighborhood who experienced the “Harpy project” of musician Roxane Martin.
Their names are Lorys, Fatima, Floriant or Milissa to name just a few. To date, these young people from the Alès district of Tamaris continue their education in several colleges in Alès and Gard. But their portraits, displayed in the Cratère hall until December 20, immortalize their last days as primary school students.
A poetic end of childhood
This gallery of portraits, celebrated during the opening this Monday, December 2, was taken at the end of spring 2023 by photographer Stéphane Barbier, journalist at the Alésien editorial staff of MidiLibre. Each of the sixteen prints features a diptych juxtaposing the faces of each child (in monochrome) with their respective harps, strong in color. An initiative at the request of Roxane Martin, professional harpist, to finalize her “harpy project”, several years of work where the artist introduced these children to the joys of the harp, right up to the construction, by their own hands, their instruments.
The images are not just an ode to music as a universal link. “What I asked Stéphane Barbier was to be able to grasp this subtle passage from childhood to adolescence, through the discovery of an instrument which, at the start, was not in their universesummarizes Roxane Martin. I also like to reflect on the history of the possibilities and the futures that we offer to these children.”
Roxane Martin has known some of the children since their first steps in kindergarten. With his “harpy project”, “music entered their families”. This is the goal she hoped for. As for whether they intend to continue practicing this instrument, or to continue their music-loving journeys, only time will provide some semblance of answers.
