Ces jeux que les gens jouent (1991)

On the theme of inclusion and exclusion in our relationships with others, this photographic series interweaves scenes taken from board games with those from everyday life, in which the need for love and the fear of rejection interact.

The premise is that, in our relationships with others, we often act and react according to two main emotions: the need to be loved/the desire to please (fullness) and the fear of rejection, of being excluded (emptiness). This obviously applies to romantic relationships, but the concept can be broadened. The need to have friends, to fit in with a group, and to gain social recognition appear as variants of these two primary emotions. They are expressed in a situation (context) and can be seen through signs (gestural and verbal code). As emotions repeat themselves, so situations and signs also seem to repeat themselves.

Around this idea of repetition and coincidence, board games were staged. The “fabricated” games (triptychs) are interspersed with excerpts of “found reality” (individual images) intended to establish a parallel, a cross-reference between the two planes.