Chambre 207

Close to the autofiction, the photographic project Chambre 207 is based on the reconstitution of memories lost as a result of childhood trauma.

On 5 August 1983, while on an overnight stop with his family on their way to their summer holiday destination, Jean-Michel André’s father and six others were murdered at a hotel in Avignon. The case was never fully solved, but the investigation did reveal a motive: a botched robbery by a group of petty criminals that turned into a massacre.

Just seven years old at the time, that night, Jean-Michel André was sleeping with O. in a room next to his father’s. Deeply traumatised by the events, he lost all memory of what happened. Thirty years later, he embarked on a journey to uncover the truth, opening countless doors and collecting various documents. However, with the truth continuing to elude him, the author decided to shift his focus and set the horror aside to face the trauma. He revisited and photographed the landscapes he travelled through – or might have travelled through – with his father. He visited Avignon, the site of the tragedy, the region of Arles where one of the suspects was found, and Corsica, the intended holiday destination in August 1983. He returned to Germany, where his father worked for the Foreign Office, and to Senegal, where he had spent his early childhood with his parents.

He has incorporated elements from the investigation, press archives, and family objects into his photographs to create a collection that explores the themes of memory, mourning, and healing. Jean-Michel André’s approach diverges from the pathos and spectacle often associated with such events, it questions the limits of the image: what can be shown, how, why, and for whom? How can we make abstract concepts tangible and share personal experiences to achieve something universal? The photographic medium becomes a tool that repairs, shaping the work and becoming the sole driving force.

The exhibition, designed as a visual essay, relates as much to the realms of reconstitution as reconstruction. Through its poetic approach, it transports us into an anachronistic timeframe, intertwining the moments before and after that night in room 207. It highlights a quest for truth that gradually becomes a form of liberation.

Chambre 207 is also a photo book to be published by Actes Sud in early October 2024.

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Practical information

Musée de l’Hospice Comtesse
32 rue de la Monnaie, Lille
mhc.lille.fr

Opening hours

↘︎ Wednesday – Sunday: 10 a.m. → 6 p.m.
Monday: 2 p.m. → 6 p.m.
Closed on Tuesdays, 1 November, 11 November, 25 December 2024 and 1 January 2025

Prices

↘︎ Full: €6
↘︎ Reduced : €4 (12-25 years old, large family card…).
↘︎ Free for children under 12, art and heritage students, jobseekers, people with disabilities, ICOM card holders and C’Art holders.

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Curated by
Anne Lacoste, Director of the Institut pour la photographie

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Exhibition co-produced with le Centre Méditerranéen de la photographie à Bastia and le Musée de l’Hospice Comtesse de Lille
Photographic project carried out with the support of the Centre national des arts plastiques, of the Région Hauts-de-France and of the Centre Méditerranéen de la photographie, Bastia.
This exhibition will be presented at the Centre Méditerranéen de la photographie in Corsica in autumn 2025.