Lia Darjes‘ work is strongly linked to personal encounters and staged photography. Her series often arise from an event or curiosity that she pursues over several years. During lockdown, Lia Darjes withdrew to her parents‘ home in the countryside. When she spotted a squirrel approaching the remains of a cake left on the garden table, the idea for a new photographic project came to her: to recreate and capture this furtive gesture, and the delicate connection between humans and animals, the trace and the presence.
The photographer invited her friends and family to share meals in the same garden or invited herself into other people’s gardens, then collected the leftovers—wilted bouquets of flowers, crumbs, abandoned dishes—which she carefully rearranged, like the early stages of a contemporary still life. The artist then sets up her camera, programmed to take pictures in her absence using a motion detector. The camera remains in position, sometimes overnight, sometimes for a week, open to the possibility that an animal will enter the frame, allowing this suspended moment to be captured.
The title Plates I–XXXI refers not only to the laid table but also to the plates in old art books, thus evoking the history of art as well as that of everyday life. The series playfully celebrates a discreet coexistence: the one we share with familiar animals that we no longer really see. Through her images, Lia Darjes invites us to rediscover the simple beauty of a shared world, the extraordinary coexistence of humans and non-humans.
Topics covered during the visit (adapted to suit the age of the pupils):
- Observation and perception: how does the photographer transform an ordinary moment into a subject worthy of attention? How can art help us to be attentive and mindful of our environment?
- Coexistence and the human-animal relationship: how does the artist visually convey the boundary—or continuity—between human and animal gestures? In what way do her images reflect how we share the same space with other humans and non-humans?
- Artistic process and creative approach: what is a still life? In what ways do Lia Darjes‘ compositions fit into this classic genre while also redefining it? How does the artist navigate between staging and spontaneity? How did she set up the technical aspects of the camera trap?
The subjects and fields covered during the visit include (depending on the age of the pupils):
- Contemplation, sensible perception
- Cohabitation and the relationship between humans and animals
- Still life, staging, art history
- Photographic trap, photography, art
The detailed description of the exhibition and the education programme offer is available (in French) as a PDF file.
