Photography
Franck Enjolras / Jean Noviel
An iconic location in the history of psychiatry in France, the Maison-Blanche hospital in Neuilly-sur-Marne was built in 1900 to “decongest,” as it was called at the time, the other asylums in the Seine department. It was entirely dedicated to women until 1970.
The hospital is now abandoned, its buildings in ruins, neglected, surrounded by suddenly overgrown vegetation. The crumbling walls echo the words of a distant universe where stories of lives have passed. Letters abandoned and narrowly saved during the authors’ immersions in the place became the pretext for a journey into the heart of this symbolic institution, steeped in fantasy: the psychiatric asylum.
As they journeyed through the lines of registers, the patina of the walls, the park’s paths, the dilapidated corridors, the deserted changing rooms, and the faded details, the authors sought to question the ancient and current basis of their foundation. Above all, between the threads of the past and the present, they summon, in their own way, the legacy and renunciation of the institution.
Le Grand renoncement, 1.5 x 22, 144 pages, 50 two-color reproductions, soft touch binding
