Art & Psy

Sooner or later, the Aftermade had to be fixed.Not to trap it — it would not survive enclosure — but to give it a first form, a ground, a foundation from which its apparition could finally recognize itself. The Aftermade is not a concept thrown into the air: it was born from years of observation, wandering, failed gestures, walls whitewashed too quickly, stubborn traces that refuse to disappear.

Il fallait, tôt ou tard, fixer l’Aftermade. Non pour l’enfermer — il ne survivrait pas à la clôture — mais pour lui donner une forme première, une assise, un socle où son apparition pourrait enfin se reconnaître. L’Aftermade n’est pas un concept jeté en l’air : il est né d’années d’observations, de déambulations, de ratages, de murs blanchis trop vite, de traces obstinées qui refusent de disparaître.

Beneath the municipal blancstock laid in a single thin coat, a wall in Concarneau lets three letters rise back through: C H E. Not an effigy, not the stature of a hero, but a simple word — or rather its skeleton.

During the systematic photographic survey, a child walking past with her parents spontaneously identified the configuration: ‘Oh Mum, it looks like my bear!’ This reaction constitutes the first orally documented on-site interpretation. I had neither seen nor read this figure before the child named it.