At the Solidarity Gardens in Nîmes, Marc Pataut and the memory of “Those from the field” before the Stade de France

It is a vanished world but also a forgotten moment that Marc Pataut has immortalized with his series “Those on the ground, Le Cornillon”. In the mid-1990s, the photographer documented the life and space that gave way to the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris. Presented as part of Invisible Cities #5 at the Negpos gallery, the exhibition can be discovered with particular pleasure in the open air, at Côté Jardins solidaires.

Marc Pataut's series belongs to the history of contemporary photography. Since its creation, it has been presented at the Documenta in Kassel, at the Jeu de Paume gallery in Paris or at the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid… In Nîmes, planted on stems like flowers rocked by the wind, the 134 prints of Marc Pataut bloom like bouquets of wild herbs, between cardoons and leeks, for a unique and particularly successful stroll.

Photos scattered around the garden

In a sober black and white, on small postcard-style formats, Marc Pataut testifies to the two years spent on site with these people in a precarious situation, between the cabins, the vegetation, the wastelands, the rubble, the work that arrive.

The long time allows the artist to form a real bond with the inhabitants. Little by little, in these abandoned landscapes, in the midst of upheaval, he builds the family album of “Ceux du terrain”, a touching, modest, deeply human album.

Over the months and years, the photographer mixes scenes of life, portraits, buildings, the first destruction works, simple everyday gestures, moments of joy, meals, kids playing.

It shows the complicity that the inhabitants maintain with this strange territory, its nature, its fragility, their attachment to the spirit of the place. In this uncertain territory, Marc Pataut always remains in a curious in-between, as if another ending remained possible.