La mémoire collective des photographies de scène : Jean V. par Agnès V Je me souviens de Gérard Philipe dans Le Cid

The 12 years during which Agnès Varda was the only photographer of the Festival of Avignon’s Company cannot be regarded as a mere training period before she became the celebrated artist we know. Nonetheless, the photographs she took at that time became so famous that their author felt the need to reveal this period through her recent exhibitions dedicated to Jean Vilar. –In fact, Varda’s photography stroke people’s mind first in the 1950s as soon as they were dispatched and at a second time nowadays. This recent disclosure of her photographs can be seen as a way to fight against oversight, as theatre is a permanently vivid phenomenon. In fact, Varda’s photographs must not be considered through their particular aesthetics only, but also as part of the inner process of her whole carrier. This process appears to be made of the permanent to and fro movement from her inner self to the outer world, in the same way as she filmed “Jane B.” in 1987: the recent tribute to Jean Vilar emphasizes a complex relationship made of mourning and gratefulness.