Between Wallpaper and Wall: self-portraits by Hélène Amouzou
Silently, from behind a bouquet, a pair of eyes meet ours. 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 could become a home.
Light enters through a window in the attic. It catches the patterns on the torn wallpaper and a bouquet of flowers on the table. All the details are illuminated, but not the woman who stares silently from behind the flowers.
Her face is depicted as a silhouette, like a vague apparition. The eyes in the background meet ours. This woman is Hélène Amouzou—the photographer portraying herself.
Hélène Amouzou (Togo, 1969) created a number of photo series with self-portraits between 2007 and 2011.
She considers these self-portraits to be a visual diary of the loneliness, sadness, and fatigue she experienced during her two-decade-long 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."