17 February, 2012

Something like USA, an insight of the United States of France at the Angers Saint Aubin tower

The Saint-Aubin tower hosts till next Sunday evening an interesting exhibition about the reproductions, the evocation in France of the US world. "Something like usa" is a photographical worf about the signs and marks of the american myth. Realized by two French photographers, Antoine Faurel and Jean Herpin, that collection of clichés highlights, with a touch of irony, the American fantasy of French. 

Born from a picture shot by chance of a giant restaurant sign, the work is a kind of "road trip made in France" as, the two photographers point it. "Some elements, some details in the urban landscape create a shift in space". Just for a while, the pedestrian feels he is moved to another country. All these pictures gather the United States of France : bungalows with big american cars where a Stars and Stripes banner is hoisted, the interior of a country restaurant or the frontside of a motel are some of the most intriguing expression of the fascination of French for the USA.

A city like Angers, typically French, includes now many American iconic objects in its surroundings : industrial zones, drivin'fast foods and so. But its maybe in the use of English words that American language and culture is the most present. This is ambivalent because in France, there is in the same time an attraction and a repulsion for symbols of the English speaking civilization.

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