Pierre-Yves Racine (born 1984, based in La Manche), winner of the 2017 grant, has been documenting Les Prairies since 2012 – a 30-hectare site in the centre of Rennes, formerly allotments, now a derelict area inhabited by both temporary and long-term residents, and soon to be transformed into an urban park.
In Prairies, Pierre-Yves Racine combines his own photographs with images collected from residents to create a comprehensive, fluid and organic portrait of this place characterised by the passage of people, time and change. Traditional photographs, the reuse of existing images taken by others, and objects collected on site all form layers that convey the density of experiences lived out in Les Prairies and, in a sort of multi-dimensional herbarium, constitute a memory of the site prior to its transformation. This topographical work, patient and sensitive, will take on its full dimension through a spatial installation during the exhibition at the Centre photographique and at Le Point du Jour, but also in situ across the Prairies.
