Gilles Pourtier – författare

Six years after the birth of his first child, Gilles Pourtier delivers an intimate journey through the months that preceded him. Full-page black and white photographs function as clues to a transformation. They carry trivial memories and symbols, revealing, in filigree, the existential vertigo that prevails when one prepares to transmit life and therefore, the inevitability of death. They read like so many ultrasounds of this before, in which we meet children, adolescents and friends who are already parents. Gilles Pourtier frees himself from a painful story, that of a trying pregnancy. It is literally an introspective “echoing writing” that responds, in retrospect, to helpless empathy. This incommunicability is shared. t is expressed in the message he receives from the mother, as they are separated by a thousand kilometers: “If my tears flowed in your eyes” (si mes larmes coulaient dans tes yeux ) which he makes the starting point of the book.

Gilles Pourtier was welcomed for a year at 3 bis, a contemporary art center located in the heart of the Montperrin psychiatric hospital in Aix-en-Provence. The large repair area is interested in this place of care and its serial architecture, examining the typological variations of the pavilions where the patients are accommodated. The photographs emphasize the repetitive nature and mass production of these buildings, bringing this industrial aesthetic closer to the issues of minimal art. Gilles Pourtier also develops a series of drawings titled Wunderblocks who questions the relationship between buildings and individuals. Multidisciplinarity, defended in this work crossing drawings, photographs, architecture, allows to bring a new look on the subject of psychiatry by focusing on the close relationship between pathologies and environments. The texts of Jean-Christophe Arcos (curator) and Philippe Prost (architect) support and enlighten this approach throughout the book. Gilles Pourtier took part in a one-year artist's residency at 3 bis, a contemporary art center located in Montperrin psychiatric hospital in Aix-en-Provence. The Great Observation Box focuses on this mental health institute and its serial architecture, examining the typological variations of the pavilions where patients are admitted. The photographs underline the repetitive nature and the mass production of these buildings, establishing a parallel between this industrial aesthetic and the issues of minimal art. Gilles Pourtier also developed a series of drawings entitled Wunderblocksthat matters the relationship between built environments and individuals. The multidisciplinary approach in this publication mixes drawings, photographs and architecture. It is a new perspective on the subject of psychiatry by observing the relationship between pathologies and environments. Throughout the book, the texts by Jean-Christophe Arcos (exhibition curator) and Philippe Prost (architect) complete and shed light on this process.

SKKS is part of the code found on license plates in Slovakia. Borrowed from the European Union’s nomenclature of statistical territorial units and the international license plate codes, these four letters indicate the origin of a vehicle: SK for Slovakia and KS for the Kosice-okolie District.  All the photos in this book were taken during the summer of 2013 during a travels on foot along the roads of Slovakia by Gilles Pourtier.