Vague Souvenir

A gesture reiterated: François?Xavier Courrèges chooses a photograph of a young man from the 1970s or 1980s, which figures among the many he has collected from specialist dealers. He matches it with a piece of wallpaper from the same period. He then affixes the image to the wallpaper with glue so that it forms a frame along its borders. Through this collection of portraits, François?Xavier Courrèges restores forgotten lives and lifestyles. He unearths these pictures from their historic limbo. These erotic photos do not feature in the major history of images. They are absent from the museums, public collections and artistic institutions. And undoubtedly, the viewer who watches Vague souvenir will also remember it comes from him — it is also his history. But the memory remains hazy and the questions are sentenced to melancholy: what do we know of these boys? What can we do against time that passes and the accompanying relentless force of forgetfulness?

A gesture reiterated: François?Xavier Courrèges chooses a photograph of a young man from the 1970s or 1980s, which figures among the many he has collected from specialist dealers. He matches it with a piece of wallpaper from the same period. He then affixes the image to the wallpaper with glue so that it forms a frame along its borders. Through this collection of portraits, François?Xavier Courrèges restores forgotten lives and lifestyles. He unearths these pictures from their historic limbo. These erotic photos do not feature in the major history of images. They are absent from the museums, public collections and artistic institutions. And undoubtedly, the viewer who watches Vague souvenir will also remember it comes from him — it is also his history. But the memory remains hazy and the questions are sentenced to melancholy: what do we know of these boys? What can we do against time that passes and the accompanying relentless force of forgetfulness?