EST-CE AINSI QUE LES HOMMES VIVENT?

Tout est affaire de décor
Changer de lit changer de corps
À quoi bon puisque c'est encore
Moi qui moi-même me trahis
Moi qui me traîne et m'éparpille
Et mon ombre se déshabille
Dans les bras semblables des filles
Où j'ai cru trouver un pays.
Cœur léger cœur changeant cœur lourd
Le temps de rêver est bien court …
LOUIS ARAGON

This evening, while walking around the Luxembourg Gardens and admiring the exhibition on the gates, we had stopped to discuss the juxtaposition of a particular photo (of young American soldiers training in North Carolina) with another photo next to it (of a field of war graves in Northern France) when an extraordinary thing happened. A smartly-dressed middle-aged man came up to the photo of the young troops and, with his thick black marker pen, quite casually wrote “U.S. GO HOME” underneath and then ran off smartish. My friend remonstrated with the man’s rapidly fleeing back but to no avail.

The exhibition itself shows sometimes unexpected views of landscapes and people but strangely, my friend always guessed correctly when the photos came from England. Something to do with our eyes and our pasty pale skin, apparently.