The discovery of a secret passage behind a painting is one of the keys
to the intrigue in Vampires by Louis Feuillade (1915). The framed image
visible in this sequence is a photographic print representing the gallery of
Ancient Egyptian objects in the Louvre. Transposed into an exhibition space, a
new shot of this same scene, photographed at the same period but from the
opposite point of view, is shown respecting the original stage set of the film.
If the frame of this image is gently touched, the image disappears and reveals
instead a black monochrome whose intensity evokes a hypothetical passageway
built behind the picture rail.
More than just a simple reconstitution, the
installation draws together a series of operations, of presentations and
representations of the work in the context of its « showing ». Since
the initial displays of the Ancient Egyptian objects were set up, each passing
from one way of showing to the next feeds this history with particular meanings
and destinations. The installation is thus similar to a loop composed of
different layers of circulation.
