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How to look at beauty? Is it a question of culture, of continent? "To be beautiful" reveals above all our handicap of being often unable to see beauty in people with disabilities. On the occasion of World Disability Day, this Tuesday, December 3, this exhibition of photographs opens our hearts and doors at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris.
Large images and small texts for a bluffing result, presented after three years of research and 18 jubilant meetings performed by the photographer Astrid di Crollalanza and the writer Frédérique Deghelt. An invitation to share, for example, the joy of living of the twins Pauline and Eva, to approach the soul of Jerome, to be surprised by the splendor of Violette ... And I forgot to tell you: they are Down syndrome, burned with a face transplant, a small person, etc., but especially wonderful.
Frédérique Deghelt found the right words to present on small cartels the protagonists of this exhibition. At the opening, she came with her son Jim, curious to scan the smartphone that is filming his mother, and carrying a genetic disease. It was also sumptuously photographed by Astrid di Crollalanza signing these images full of creativity and finesse to facilitate access to this largely unknown world. Interview.
RFI : What is beauty for you ?
Frédérique Deghelt : For me, beauty is something inside that springs out. That's what struck us with the beautiful beings we photographed. They were unable to hide the beauty they have and the way they spread it has nothing to do with the ego. They are not aware of being beautiful, because they are rejected everywhere. So, it's a very natural beauty.
In the photos and in the texts accompanying the images, beauty and people with disabilities, that makes one. It's in unison. Why in society is it often separated?
It's separate, because we're looking at them in a certain way. We look at them as not being in the norm. And they end up looking at each other as we watch them. Instead of feeling their singularity. I talk a lot with people with disabilities, and I tell them: there is an ambiguity. Yes, they must live like others. Yes, they must have the same rights, go to the same places, work in the same companies, earn the same wages, acquire the same skills, education ... But, no, they must not be like the others. They are not like the others. And they have to claim it, because that's what makes them unique. And the fact that they are not like the others is also something that is a gift for us because they have access to something we do not have. Clearly.
Do they have another vision or a broader vision of beauty ?
Yes and no. One of them pointed out to me: " When I see a disabled person, I judge him. I say : he is a handicapped person. I have the same look as others about disability . But, in reality, they still have another way of looking at the Other Being in the world. They have another way to be in the world. To relativize things.
On two of the 26 photos on display, we see two young sisters, twins, Down syndrome. What beauty do we discover on this picture ?
Their father said, " Yes, of course, we look at them in the street. My daughters are beautiful, twins and Down syndrome, why do not we look at them ? And they make the show. They are remarkable. They are in a sort of show that makes them happy. Which may be embarrassing for some, but it depends on how you look at them. It's always the question of the look that comes back all the time.
With the exhibition, do you want to redefine beauty ?
I'm not trying to redefine beauty. The beauty is there. When you are in front of a sunset, you are that sunset. It's part of your inner solar nature. And when you are facing beautiful beings, they make you beautiful. So, I'm not redefining anything. I just watch and translate with words and Astrid di Crollalanta with pictures. It is a gift we receive with gratitude.
Is the relationship between beauty and being handicapped dependent on the country, the culture, the continent in which we live ? Here in France or in Europe is it anything else to be handicapped in Africa, for example ?
Probably. Anyway, there is a big cultural part to the handicap. [Some think] that the disability is carried by people who received something from the devil. There are still some things vaguely ... [Others have the conception that after life] there is a second or third life and when we carry a disability, it is because we did things not well in a previous life. This cultural part is heavy and we must also, at times in history, hide the handicap, or not.
The beauty canons have always changed, according to the cultures and times. When one thinks, for example, African women with spirals around the neck, formerly exposed in " human zoos ", or the fetishism of small feet practiced in China, but also tattoos , long considered in Europe as external signs of marginalized , today elevated to the rank of an art in its own right. Disability, could one day be part of the beauty for the majority of our society ?
I do not know. I always give the example of Star Wars where they are all with not possible faces, but it does not shock anyone, because they come from another planet. It would be beautiful if one could be in that vision of the Other. That is, the Other may have a different body shape. It's also interesting to watch how "the augmented man" will change our perception of the body. For example, you have a model, who has 27 pairs of legs [ amputated under the knees at the age of 1 year, the American Aimee Mullins became an athlete, model, actress and claims to be an " augmented woman ", ndl r ] and is sometimes 1.82 m, sometimes 1.70 m. She runs with some legs, she comes out with transparent legs, with sculpted legs ... So, everything is possible.
► Be beautiful , exhibition with photographs of Astrid di Crollalanza and texts by Frédérique Deghelt at the Musée de l'Homme, in Paris, from December 4, 2019 to June 29, 2020.