Between Wallpaper and Wall: self-portraits by Hélène Amouzou
Silently from behind a bouquet, a pair of eyes meet our eyes. It is one of eight self-portraits of a woman in an almost empty attic. They are a visual diary of her long uncertain search for asylum and a new place that can become a home.
Light enters through a window in the attic. It catches the patterns on the torn wallpaper and a bouquet of flowers sitting on the table. All the details are highlighted but not the woman staring silently from behind the flowers.
Her face is depicted as a silhouette, like a faint ghostly apparition. The eyes in the background meet ours. This woman is Hélène Amouzou - the photographer portraying herself.
Hélène Amouzou (b. Togo, 1969) made a number of photo series with self-portraits between 2007-2011.
She considers these self-portraits a visual diary about the loneliness, sadness and fatigue she experienced during her two-decade search for asylum.
"When I discovered the attic, I allowed myself to dream a little."
"[...] In this isolated space, I finally had the opportunity to escape a little and to get back in touch with myself."