AL-ULA - Malo Legrand - BASE - DD'AB

AL-ULA (Projet en cours)

«Un homme marche sous l’aridité du ciel. Nous ne savons pas qui il est, d’où il vient, ce qu’il fuit, les raisons qui mènent ses pas. Nous voyons son corps inlas- sable, nous voyons les pensées et les sentiments qui le traversent, qui ne sont pas plus à lui que les vêtements qu’il porte et les paysages qu’il parcourt ; nous distinguons quelques- unes des images qui naissent dans son cerveau, celles qui reviennent, insistent ; des hampes de palmier tapissant le ciel, un visage de femme, des enfants qui jouent dans un jardin cerné de murs de terre, des figures abstraites brodées sur un tissu de coton. Impossible de savoir s’il se souvient ou s’il les imagine ; les images viennent sans prévenir, l’envahissent, déteignent sur les choses. Il marche lentement. Nous entendons le son de ses pas sur le sable, sa respiration régulière, le vent qui siffle dans ses oreilles. Nous le sui- vons. Bientôt il s’arrêtera, posera son sac à l’ombre d’un rocher, en sortira une gourde, boira quelques gorgées. Observons-le. Il ne s’assied pas ; il regarde le ciel, les falaises de grès rouge le long de l’oued, la palmeraie au loin où il compte passer la nuit à l’abri des regards ; il scrute ses mains gercées par le soleil, ses ongles noirs, les cornes qui font le tour de ses paumes ; avec deux doigts de sa main gauche, il caresse les renflements durs et lisses, ils lui font penser à ces rochers qu’il a croisés avant d’entrer dans l’oued ; ronds, petits, doux comme la peau ; une image se forme ; une main immense, grande comme l’estuaire d’un fleuve éteint, couverte de cornes brunes ; la callosité du désert. Un aboiement, il tourne la tête, l’image s’efface. Il se lève et reprend sa marche. Il atteindra la palmeraie avant la nuit. Il dormira dans une ferme abandonnée. Il ramassera des feuilles de palmiers dont il se fera un lit, du bois dont il fera un feu. Il mangera ce qu’il aura cueil- li, oranges, dattes, cédrats et dormira avec le soleil. Puis il reprendra sa marche.»

AL-ULA, TEXTE DE LAURA SELLIES, extrait du recueil de nouvelles Al-Ula. Les photographie précède l’écriture des textes, ils emmergent de cette collection d’images.

AL-ULA (in progress)

«A man walks under the aridity of the sky. We don’t know who he is, where he co- mes from, what he is fleeing from, the reasons that lead his steps. We see his ti- reless body, we see the thoughts and feelings that run through him, which are no more his own than the clothes he wears and the landscapes he travels through; we distinguish some of the images which are born in his brain, those which re- turn, insist; palm stalks lining the sky, a woman’s face, children playing in a gar- den surrounded by earthen walls, abstract figures embroidered on cotton fabric. Impossible to know if he remembers or if he imagines them; the images come without warning, invade it, rub off on things. He walks slowly. We hear the sound of his footsteps on the sand, his steady breathing, the wind whistling in his ears. We follow him. Soon he will stop, put his bag in the shade of a rock, take out a water bottle, take a few sips. Let’s observe it. He does not sit down; he looks at the sky, the red sandstone cliffs along the wadi, the palm grove in the distance where he intends to spend the night out of sight; he scrutinizes his hands chap- ped by the sun, his black fingernails, the horns that circle his palms; with two fingers of his left hand, he caresses the hard, smooth swellings, they make him think of those rocks he crossed before entering the wadi; round, small, soft as the skin ; an image is formed; an immense hand, as large as the estuary of an extinct river, covered with brown horns; the callus of the desert. A bark, he turns his head, the image fades. He gets up and resumes his walk. He will reach the palm grove before nightfall. He will sleep in an abandoned farmhouse. He will pick up palm leaves to make a bed, wood to make a fire. He will eat what he has picked, oranges, dates, citrons and will sleep with the sun. Then he will resume his walk.»

AL-ULA, extract from the novel collection written by Laura Sellies. the photographies are the origin of the texts for once, picture don’t illustrates a story, but the story emerges from a collection of frames

AL-ULA, Fleurs-Frigo, 2022

(en cours) extrait du livre Al-Ula avec les textes de Laura Sellies, photographie couleur numérique, © Malo Legrand