Pierre Faure

The title of the exhibition in French is from the book “France périphérique” by Christophe Guilluy, a geographer who adopted a geographical approach to address contemporary political and cultural issues in France. He has focused on the way a fringe has developed in France, in vulnerable areas, some on the outskirts of large cities, others in small and medium-sized towns and in rural areas. He has observed that 60% of the population and 75% of the “new working classes” live in such fringe areas of France, far removed from the big cities of the globalized planet.

Statistics for 2021 reported that more than 9 million people in France were living below the poverty line (i.e. disposable income of less than €1,158/month for one person, or €2,314/month for a family with two children). What’s more, food banks in France have been used by some 2 to 4 million people [statistics for continental France in 2020], which is the ultimate irony for a country that is one of the world’s leading agricultural producers.

I started working on the project in 2015 after spending three years covering extreme social vulnerability (in a Roma slum in 2012, a public hospital and an emergency shelter in 2013 and 2014). I am now focusing on the working class and middle class, and as they change this will mean, in the long term, major changes in French society.