Le Charme Discret Des Déterrés

This photographic project began, two years ago, when I had to bid farewell to a family home and its garden. I began by photographing the various rooms of the house that were still furnished, then as they emptied out, until my gaze finally fell on this potted plant, a plant the age of the house, our old friend whom I almost forgot. This is how I came to pay homage to nature in our daily life, like those decorative potted plants that we forget to water every so often but which continue to accompany us like loyal ghosts. Or like those garden hedges we grow to ward off invasion from our neighbours, or those palm trees dug up from their native land to make us dream of the exotic in our cold little gardens. How do these plants see us? Do they have dreams too? Do they speak to us?

Not forgetting urban nature, more or less under control, fiercely resilient and thanks to which our walks in the city are full of surprises and poetry. I can still find this slightly wild nature in the Grund, where I like to walk with my dog. Along the Alzette, not far below the Palais de Justice and the CFL offices, a heron meditates, two Egyptian geese embrace, and the Daucus carota, covered in a white crochet caps, dance languorously. An almost invisible yet no less moving spectacle.

In the Grund, I also photograph the Bisserweg community garden. For a whole year, I was invited by the gardeners to document their work. Under their doubting eyes, it’s not so much their harvests that I photograph, but rather their relationship with the place. Skilfully decorated huts, a T-shirt drying in the wind, a tool at rest, a pumpkin forgotten on a garden mat. But also Luis’ garden, compartmentalized and geometric, which reminds me of a Mondrian painting. These gardens are a hymn to slow living, to an alternative life where nature is at its center. And after almost forgetting it, it was here in the Grund, camera around my neck, that I finally found it again.

Here I present this slow revelation through photos of the nature that has surrounded me over the last two years. They are both portraits and stories. They are in color and black and white to emphasize the notion of time and timelessness.

Date and time: 19 June 2025 – 10:00-18:00
Venue: Pétrusse valley
Price: Free of charge
Registration: Available soon