In the Making

Valérie Leray

Valerie Leray’s pictures imply a return to the “realms of memory” regarded as expressions of the artistic gesture, showing in the present time what used to be but which remains invisible. In her series In the Making, the artist looks for the testimony of places where the Stasi exerted its power: the former ministry in Normannenstrasse and the former main remand center in Genslerstrasse – once unidentifiable on a map and called terra incognita. These places, today museographied but almost in their original condition, these memorials are visited under the guidance of former prisoners so as to offer the public their utmost genuineness.
The layout of the furniture and the choice of the shooting angles make a human presence palpable. Their minimalistic aspect and the limited palette – as many hints of a real-life history – have led her to play with overlapping shapes, and to emphasize their geometric and abstract properties. Today’s objects are both tracks of the past and allegories, symbols or sources of fiction. (Translation: François Marinier)