Antoine Héraly, Les ancêtres (The Ancestors)

installation, 2009

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co-produced by diep~haven

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In 2009, at the age of 17, Antoine Héraly felt that he was not ‘developed’ enough to be the subject of a self-portrait. He therefore decided to look to those who had come before him (up to four generations of his ancestors) and, with the help of his mother, to restage the characters from the family albums. Birth certificates, family stories, and sometimes clothing found buried in the attic were all necessary tools which were collected together and used in the realisation of a reinterpreted and imagined family tree. More than a work of documentation, Les Ancêtres (The Ancestors) is primarily a quasi psycho-genealogical work, where Héraly resurrects each of his predecessors in turn, within his own skin, thus allowing him a painful but valuable encounter with his family members.

 

After studying Cinema at the Sorbonne (Paris), Antoine Héraly dedicated himself to radio and to programming for film festivals. In his multidisciplinary artistic practice, he works with painting, photography and video simultaneously. For the first time, as part of Diep~Haven festival, Héraly is presenting his photographic work, before joining the Royal College of Art this autumn to study Moving Image.