The meeting was made at 1:30 p.m., at the back of a pretty café in the center of Rennes. Sitting on an old armchair, Emilie took care to place a few boards in front of her with the portraits she printed. On the table, we easily recognize his favorite targets: Emmanuel Macron, Marine Le Pen, Jordan Bardella and Cyril Hanouna. “I had done others with Pascal Praud, Gérard Depardieu or Alain Finkielkraut. I even posted photos of dictators. But I couldn’t laugh when I saw the portraits of Putin or Netanyahu. »
The famous Emilie with whom we have an appointment this afternoon is not a celebrity. The action she has been carrying out for several months is however slowly getting people talking about her in the Breton capital. As the legislative elections approach, his “works” are even becoming an accepted means of resistance and political engagement. But only for the left, let’s be clear.
“It made me laugh to see him like that, all smiles”
This 44-year-old musician developed a passion for an art that very few people practice and which doesn’t really have a name. “These are my poop flowers.” That’s the name I came up with for them. I found it funny to think that these portraits could have grown there, in the shit. » Arriving in Rennes four years ago, the Montpellier woman has been enjoying painting portraits of politicians in dog droppings discovered in the street for several months.
But she insists: she is not the one who invented this new “art”. “I discovered it after a demonstration. I was deeply saddened and demotivated to see that we were not listened to. And then when I came home, I saw a photo of Emmanuel Macron placed on a turd, very close to the Cercle theater, rue de Paris. I thought it was a brilliant idea and it made me laugh to see him like that, all smiles.”
About two weeks would pass before Emilie discovered a new “poop pick” in the same street, this time featuring a portrait of Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. She took a photo of it and talked about it to those around her. Without knowing it, the feminist activist had just fallen in love with the man or woman who had this idea. She decided to buy a set of wooden skewers at a garage sale and began printing her favourite portraits in a shop in the city centre. “Because you need a bit of thick paper to make it hold up,” she explained. We can imagine the shopkeeper’s face when he saw this woman printing portraits of Hanouna or Bardella.
“You have to choose photos where they smile.”
Affirmed support of the New Popular Front, Emilie chooses her targets and clearly targets the Macronist government and the National Rally. A way for her to campaign “with humor” to affirm that she does not share the same ideas. “You have to choose photos where they are smiling. It makes it more fun to see them sitting in the poop all smiles. We can do a political poll by seeing how long they stay on the street. »
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In Rennes, she acts in broad daylight and in full view of everyone. But she assures that no one has ever made a remark to her. Her technique is simple. When she spots a turd “neither too fresh to hold, nor too dry to be able to prick it”, she grabs a “poop flower” and caps it. “I admit that I take a little pleasure in pushing them in.”
Do you find it disgusting? “Some of my friends too. Not everyone can do that but I don’t mind it. It doesn’t smell and I don’t touch them. » What if you don’t like it? “I’m clearly not doing this to annoy people who vote for Macron or Bardella. I see it more as a kiss of joyful activism for all the people who don’t understand it and have the impression of militating in the wind. » A way to show them that they are not alone. His problem today is finding enough droppings to display his activist works. “There are very few poops in Rennes. » Not sure that all local residents have the same opinion.
