A Bohemian Camp, 1998/99

Mathieu Pernot discovered the existence of an abundance of anthropometric photographs of former concentration camp inmates. The camp, located in Camargue, was a designated Gypsy internment camp and assisted in the Vichy government’s propaganda. The artist’s work consisted of finding survivors, then trying to retrace the history of the camp by comparing administrative sources with the living memory of former inmates. In this way the project relates living memory to archival documents and interrogates the act of reconstructing history from the point of view of those who have not written it.