L’odeur de la nuit était celle du jasmin continues the exploration begun in FLORE’s earlier book, Lointains souvenirs (Éditions Contrejour, 2016), which reflected on Marguerite Duras’s youth in Indochina. In this new project, the artist draws on her childhood memories and the stories of her grandparents, who lived during the same period and in the same places as the writer. These stories now nourish what she experiences as a shared imaginative space with Duras.
Short excerpts from Marguerite Duras’s texts punctuate the black-and-white photographs toned with tea, creating a literary counterpoint. Through this technique and her sensitive approach, FLORE both shapes and captures the world unfolding before her eyes, producing images that question the fragility of memory and photography’s ability to create a truth stronger than reality itself.
