Philippe Artières , Béatrice Didier Histoire(s) de René L.: Hétérotopies contrariées

It was in these piles of “discarded” papers, these neglected layers, that our gaze came to rest on a day when we were visiting the asylums destined for destruction in Picauville, in the Manche region. For more than a century, the large room was the collective dormitory for those who were called “the agitated”. The room, which is now almost empty, has become a repository for many boxes and objects. These are the remains of a history.

There, against a wall, we find thick rolls of paper. As we unroll these sheets, we see dozens of drawings, some drawn only in pencil, others meticulously coloured. This is a shocking sight; there are few direct traces of the patients in the hospitals.

We lay them out on the dilapidated floor: there are more than fifty large grape-sized sheets.

What are these drawings? The result of a therapeutic workshop? Works of art brut? An archive? Only one thing is certain: these enigmatic signs were left by an individual calling himself René L.

What story do these drawings tell?

We are going to look for René L. in History; the great one, the one that is the subject of treaties, the one that shapes cities, that determines our existence, but we will also look for the minor, the weak intensities, the infra-ordinary. It is at the crossroads of these multiple narratives that we assume René L. stands.