'...pour qu'Eugène puisse rester...'

This installation arose during my artist-in-residence in France in 2017, in close collaboration with Emmanuel Memin and Pascale Memin-Lusseau.

Please take a look at this small film I recorded: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wgy-icZDUIs

The house of my host and hostess Manu and Pascale had to be renovated. The attic was cleared and appeared to carry belongings of former residents.

In times past, the house was bought by Pascale and Manu from ‘oncle Eugène’, an uncle of Pascale. His old bedstead appeared among all kind of objects.
With this old piece of furniture old stories about his life, his (family) history and therewith the history of the house came to life again.

All the objects that had come out remained in the courtyard for some days. I roamed through these touchable pieces of history, took photographs, mused about the stories connected to every object.

Then, Manu started to load the furniture, with the bed of oncle Eugène, on a trailer. He was going to take it away. To a storage place. It was not clear what was going to happen with it afterwards.

With the stories that I had heard the days past about oncle Eugène, about the house, the history of the location, this object had more and more come into life. With the appearance of this piece of furniture, oncle Eugène had reappeared too. I had started to feel his presence more clearly. Although he is no longer among the living, for some years already now, his bedstead was like his signature. Like an imprint on the location.

We concluded that the bedstead belonged here. That it is part of this location. And we decided to reserve a spot for it in the courtyard. So Eugène will be able to stay. If he wishes to.

With the help, muscles and patience of Pascale and Manu, we put the bed in a spot where it could stay. Thanks very much, Pascale and Manu!

As an invitation to Eugène, so he will be able to stay if he wants.

Please check this little film I made about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wgy-icZDUIs

Pascale told me stories about oncle Eugène, and showed me an envelope containing ancient documents which illustrated the history of her ancesters and the house.

For exemple, the document of the sale of the house and land in 1897. It was sold by mr and mrs Porteboeuf to mr and mrs Beloin (née Touchet):

Here is page 2 of the document:

Page 7, with some of the history of the property:

Page 9, about the prize of the house and lands:

And the bill of costs for the transaction:

Than, in 1951, the property changed owners again.

Mr and mrs Martineau - Bordier sold it to mr and mrs Touchet - Martineau.

With again a discription of the history of owners:

And the state of the property:

In 1974 some woodland was bought:

One of the former owners, mr Touchet, was a former soldier and got injured during the war 1914-1918. Therefor he recieved a pension of the french government. See this document from 1958:

And then came 'oncle Eugène'. He was the man who owned the house and finaly sold it to Pascale and Manu. Here are some documents that show who he was. First, his passport:

Here an extract of his document of military service:

He descided to become a priest. Here is his inscription at the seminary of Le Mans in 1954:

Seeing and touching all these old documents, the history of the house came to life.

I hope that, showing some of the documents here, together with the photographs, gives an inside view to the history of the house and its owners through time.

And I hope that the installation, '...pour qu'Eugène puisse rester...', is a respectful tribute.

Do you have any remarks to make? Let me know! You can send me a message through the contact form: https://inevanson.exto.org/reageer/site/0.html