JERUSALEM. J'ai ruse l'ame !
I was born in Paris in 1959, and grew up in Paris in the 13th, 12th, and 11th borough. I started out finding books in the street, magazines Very early I'm going in search of booksellers. These driftings have inspired me and have developed a form of method I applied unconsciously and much later in my urban "derive" in Jerusalem.
Beyond flipping pages in books, what interests me are the intermediate spaces. The borders and boundaries of free spaces. Breathing Spaces. Lands of adventure. Jerusalem remains bright and white in its architecture that contrasts with the black men who roam its streets. Jerusalem lost its booksellers, Jerusalem lost its street letter boxes, Jerusalem is a city losing her memory… Jacques Prevert said "J'ai ruse l'ame " , "I trick the soul."
Jerusalem; There are many stories I could tell about it. My first encounter with this city was my Bar-Mitzvah in the summer of 1973. I took my First instamatic photographs and created my first photo album. I came back 20 years later. A new meeting which felt like a renaissance. I made "Aliyah" in 1995, this was my homecoming. I did not live in Jerusalem, but I came regularly to visit my sister and to enter (without pay) at the Israel museum, thanks to a secret passage left in the fence at the back of the Museum.
Yet my strongest link with Jerusalem are second hand books. Jerusalem is known as the city of booksellers. The city lays books on the street like bread. Incredible books of all kinds and languages, found, exchanged, purchased, have arrived left over. Several times I visited the city with no money in my pocket and found stray books in my random wanderings. I resoled them to booksellers in order to continue my journey, traveling eating and drinking. The books of survival. A volume of a Hungarian encyclopedia for one shekel ... In the books I found letters of correspondence, and photographs acting as bookmarks between the pages. Inside them I sometimes found dedication that led me to further information as to this books journey, the place of departure, Buenos Aires, Lisbon, New York, London, Paris ....
The books are what leads my steps in the city, these forgotten books, which tell a different story as the story itself .Today booksellers disappear, books stores disappear, books disappear. The books are a language and a culture, and strength to love books, it accumulates, people make you donated their library, they are arranged and in turn I write and I edited books. I do my own fanzines since 1977.
I was born in Paris in 1959, and grew up in Paris in the 13th, 12th, and 11th borough. I started out finding books in the street, magazines Very early I'm going in search of booksellers. These driftings have inspired me and have developed a form of method I applied unconsciously and much later in my urban "derive" in Jerusalem.
Another aspect of my drifting in the city concern the street letter boxes. Indeed for many years I am sending regular but random way of postcards from around the world, to some people I know or not know. Postcards not from here but elsewhere, not with stamps from here but elsewhere. Today street letter boxes of Jerusalem disappear, one after one. My path that led me from one to another, this existential drift belongs to the past.
Beyond flipping pages in books, what interests me are the intermediate spaces. The borders and boundaries of free spaces. Breathing Spaces. Lands of adventure. Jerusalem remains bright and white in its architecture that contrasts with the black men who roam its streets. Jerusalem lost its booksellers, Jerusalem lost its street letter boxes, Jerusalem is a city losing her memory… Jacques Prevert said "J'ai ruse l'ame " , "I trick the soul."
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