République

In République, photographer Bérangère Fromont captures youth and resilience on the Place de la République in Paris. She shines a light on a generation navigating the realms of history, politics and everyday life, and illustrates the duality of a place characterised by revolt and protest, yet also by calm, tranquillity and passive resistance. This autumn, the project is being presented as part of the sixth exhibition by the Institut pour la photographie at the Théâtre du Nord (Lille). It has also been the subject of a book, published by Chose commune in June 2026.

Bérangère Fromont began her République series in 2023 on the Place de la République in Paris, a highly symbolic space associated with protest, collective occupation and political tensions. On the fringes of the marches, speeches and clashes — which constitute direct forms of resistance — the artist observes another way of inhabiting the square. Skateboarders, in particular, embody a different kind of resistance: one that is less visible and more diffuse. By appropriating the urban space and repurposing its constituent elements – steps, ramps and ledges – in their practice, they give it a new character, infiltrate its nooks and crannies, and invent new ways of using it.

Through this project, Bérangère Fromont offers a visual reflection on different forms of resistance and reveals multiple ways of being in the world. She explores the presence of the body in space, light and the individual’s relationship with their environment. She photographs luminous bodies, caught between shadow and light. The black-and-white treatment of her photographs introduces a distortion of reality that conveys the tension between peace and revolt.

For this series, Bérangère Fromont immersed herself in the square. The use of a 50 mm medium-format film camera without a zoom lens forced her to take her shots from the centre of her subject. From spring to autumn, almost daily, she took a vast number of wide-angle photographs. The prints on display are in fact details from these photographs, selected from the negatives, digitised in very high definition to allow for significant enlargement, and then retouched. They are produced on washi paper (Japanese paper made from mulberry fibres, very fine yet extremely durable), using the Piezography technique – a charcoal-ink printing process that yields exceptional quality in the shades of grey.

Place de la République thus emerges as a fragmented portrait of a city that oscillates between waves of revolt and moments of peace. This square, where Parisians gather spontaneously to express their joy or discontent, embodies the legacy of the Age of Enlightenment: democracy and freedom. In a world saturated with crises, Bérangère Fromont seeks to capture moments of renewed wonder at reality, to show that politics is sometimes hidden in the details.

Practical information

Théâtre du Nord
4 Place du Général de Gaulle, Lille
theatredunord.fr

↘︎ Tuesday to Friday: 12.30 pm → 7 pm – Saturday: 2 pm → 7 pm
↘︎ Closed on Sundays, Mondays and public holidays – except on performance days
↘︎ Free entry
↘︎ This exhibition is accessible to people with reduced mobility