CollectiveLA VIE AU GRAND AIR

A castle like so many others, very close to Chemin des Dames, in Aisne, in northern France, so close, in fact, that it was completely destroyed during the World War 1. A castle, rebuilt so quickly that it still carries the scars of the bullets and bombs of the Second World War. But the traces that are the subject of this publication are wholly different in nature.
Once peace had returned to the region, the association “La vie au grand air pour l’enfance malheureuse”, “Outdoor life for unhappy children” in English, took possession of this edifice for over five decades, providing a home to young Parisians so that they might escape their environment, offering them another, different life. A number of those young residents left their mark in the stones of their new home, a gesture filled with boredom, or perhaps a desire for eternity. Bearing witness to a time long gone where the timeless signs of graffiti were etched into the walls: names, insults, statements, symbols, aliases and dates, all find themselves layered over the scars of battle.