La mort et les statues
Jean Cocteau

Photographies de Pierre Jahan.

In October 1941 the Vichy government decreed that statues of no artistic or historic importance could be unbolted and used for scrap metal. In December, before the statues were sent to Germany to be melted down and at considerable risk to himself, the photographer Pierre Jahan photographed the requisitioned works in a warehouse yard in the XIIth arrondissement of Paris.

This book comprises Jahan’s photographs of the destruction of bronze statues that had been requisitioned for scrap metal. While the imagery commemorates violence done to the landscape, the addition of Cocteau’s commentaries transforms documentary realism into surreal effect.

Le livre comprend les photographies de Jahan de la destruction de statues de bronze qui avaient été réquisitionnées pour la ferraille pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Alors que l’imagerie commémore la violence faite au paysage, l’ajout des commentaires de Cocteau transforme le réalisme documentaire en effet surréaliste.