Samuel Bouaroua

Samuel Bouaroua never knew La Samaritaine when it was open, but when he talked to his parents and relatives, he discovered that this place haunted their memories. Their recollections stirred his imagination, especially when they spoke of toys, and so he decided to play too – but in earnest, for a contemporary take on still life. He gathered together old toys that had originally been sold at La Samaritaine and transposed them into a quasi-clinical modern setting, thus taking them out of context and creating a disturbing shift between the potential nostalgia conveyed by old items and the coldness of the lighting. In the same setting, he imagined contemporary objects - those that might be on sale if La Samaritaine were still open – with the same light and the same rigorous treatment, but with added nostalgia, possible discrepancies and flaws.  Breathing life into his images, he immerses himself in modern games, using home-made toys which can be used to play, yet don’t need to be bought.