Anamnesis

 

   © Photos and Text: Isabelle Scotta

This series was realised during my residency for Planches Contact in Deauville, 2023. Deauville was invented by a parisian duke, a creation that rose from the sands of the Normandy coast just before 1900. This little holiday resort still inspires writers, painters, film-makers and photographers.

I discover it off-season. I’d imagined a town in the spotlight, but instead I found myself in a silent, timeless place. The villas here are whimsical and picturesque, and the architecture gives me the impression of an open-air film studio. There is no one left in the hotels, the houses seem haunted, the TV are off, the armchairs are empty, the docks are deserted, only the lamps are lit. It makes me wonder where the traces are of the somptuous past that made Deauville famous.

At night, going back and forth between the town, the beach and the forest, I return tirelessly to the same places, wearing out the territory until I’m removed from reality and in tune with Deauville. I inhabit it, our memories meet. A new reading of the setting appears to me, where everything becomes presence, questioning and phantasmagoria. In an atmosphere that is both luminous and tenuous, eras intermingle, landmarks become blurred, erasing dates and names. All that remains are a facade, an architectural trace, a dream that burns away in the darkness.

Characters appear in this labyrinth. their world is surrounded by clues and directions to take; they seem to be both lost and searching, between their bygone past and this new horizon that is taking shape.

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