Détournement de fonds publics
september 2006 . january 2007
Hôtel de Soubise . Archives Nationales . Ministry of culture
This exhibition was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, curated by Ariane James-Sarazin, chief curator of Musées d’Angers, former Director of Exhibitions at the National Library of France.
From the remarkable collections held in the National Archives, Anne Cindric chose documents or items (Marie-Antoinette’s last letter, the Secret Service report on Hitler...) For juxtaposition with her own works. Each pair was associated with a dual label, one historical, written by Ariane James-Sarazin, one literary, contributed by the writer Marianne Costa.
For example, alongside Napoleon’s last will and testament, Anne Cindric created a tiny wailing death’s head, resembling a Sèvres porcelain, entitled “Actual skull of Napoleon as a child “, and Marianne Costa quoted Alfonse Allais: “Whatever we say or do, as time passes, there will be fewer and fewer people who knew Napoleon.”
For the king’s desk used as a stretcher for Robespierre before his execution, his jaw broken, she conceived the denture-like sweet box “Protège-dents”, and Marianne Costa wrote her own take on Boris Vian’s “Une bonne paire de claques” (A good pair of whacks):
“Tu t’ennuyais dans ma p’tite chambre
Tu voulais voir du nouveau Chaque matin de janvier à décembre
Tu pourras t’offrir à gogo
Une bonne paire de claques dans la gueule
Et ça me consolera ma chérie
Des soirs où tu manœuvrais le rouleau à pâtisserie.”
(“You were bored in my little room
You wanted something new every morning from January to December
What you can have as much as you want is
A good pair of whacks in the gob
And that sweetheart will console me
For all the evenings you wielded the rolling pin.”)
An exhibition catalogue was published by the Ministry of la Culture, and Presses Universitaires du Septentrion also gave an account in the book “Chemins de traverse”.