You can find Sylvain’s photographs at the “Le Pigeonnier” gallery (Colonna d’Istria Street in Nice) or on his virtual gallery: www.sylvaincollet.com/gallery
Nice Première: Sylvain, what does the image represent for you?
Sylvain Collet: Every frame cuts off reality, but every disability stimulates faculties of perception and imagination.
There is a hijacking of consciousness in an image, as in sound, which one cannot turn away from; you can shock someone for the day with a photo or enchant them for five minutes.
It’s a delicate exercise when it comes to creating images on behalf of others, the stage of listening and pre-visualization is crucial before the technical realization.
One can be a good photographer, but if we take things lightly, we won’t satisfy anyone on a project.
Sometimes it’s the image of oneself, whether we create it or see it, it reflects back to us, etc… in the abstract, for example,
But here is a virtual interview, and now it’s another type of image that I have to take care of.
NP: Your best photo and your worst picture?
SC: My worst picture? A crappy photo, mine in an empty minced meat tray… it’s called “the story of a steak.”
Moreover, it is poorly framed and underexposed.
It’s trash, but it’s part of a self-imposed liberating curriculum—I couldn’t make it to Villa Arson, so I made a precarious hut.
My best? I hope it’s not already taken.
My favorite is that of an old lifeboat, which I use to evoke bruised feelings, but whose rusty hoses still seem solid. But the beauty of an image… it’s not for the author to decide.
NP: If I say Nice, what do you reply?
SC: Niçois nor anyone, Nissa nor anything else.
A girl told me yesterday that Nice seemed to her a frozen city. On reflection, I also don’t feel a spirit of the future, of projects, or an atmosphere turned towards the future. I’m of course talking about the population. People are in Nice to be there, not to do there, nor to make it a doing place. A narcissistic city, therefore quite beautiful to be navel-gazing and locked in.
Thankfully, we have Noëlle Perna to remind us of what we have to offer to the world.
NP: Four words that resonate with you: Pilou, Independent Carnival, and Garibaldi?
SC:
Pilou: Happiness, health, friendship. We’d love to create a small club, have a gym to practice and teach it throughout the year. For now, it’s a game and not yet a sport. However, to practice it, it seems worthy of any other sport, good for invention, health. There are occasional tournaments, but no permanence, thus no presence, thus no members, but there are about 10 to 15 of us playing every Sunday at the so-called rink. If there were a pilou club in your neighborhood, wouldn’t you at least try it? Pilou is a sport that is Niçois and only Niçois; it perhaps deserves its spot. Ideally, I would like it to become a federated sport. There’s a pilou meet happening in front of the Stade de France on April 22, enthusiasts are welcome.
Independent Carnival: Too much flour and badly thrown eggs, not enough festivity initiative. For this carnival, I wanted to create a generic character, like a harlequin or pierrot, the Cagadou: You staple all the labels of tainted food that have ruined (fed) your life on your chest and belly, you stuff the belly and buttocks well to bulk up, and you smear your back with whatever you want, as long as it’s tough. The anti-junk food clown, everyone can add their touch. An ode to the opulence of our shopping carts and drailla-vina. I prefer the santa Capelina, meet on the first of May at Rauba Capeu with a hat and a fish.
Garibaldi:
I manage to say it. No echo. His biography is interesting, managing to be born in Nice, succeed socially, and travel, it’s quite something.
NP: “We absolutely must not mix identity and identity politics.” What do you think of this statement?
SC: Each person possesses a distinct personal identity whereas identity politics is about claiming or imposing an identity for many if not all. Identity is linked to the hermeticism of the body, its form, its history, and its encounters.
So, identity is the opposite of identity politics in that it is what detaches from the common.
Identity is your hermetic part, identity politics propose diluting yourself into a preconceived but practical identity, like with a religion.
We do not betray traditions by rejecting identity politics. The right phrase would be “we must not mix our identity with an identity politics vision.” Identity evolves, identity politics freeze.
