Effroi, catalogue of the exhibition, Paris Musée, 2005
Introduction, Natacha Nisic
October 2004. Birkenau. Oswiecim.
Early morning. Sun after three days of rain. Silence. Crows.
The reservoir is located near the sorting platform between the rails and the barracks in the center of the camp. It is a quiet, almost motionless surface that reflects the sky in a luminous rectangle. A serene world.
I heard a slight noise as I approached the water. The noise repeated at each corner of the reservoir. Animals.
A toad is sitting on the concrete steps. It is the first living thing I have encountered this morning.
First photograph of the reservoir and the toad.
I step forward and an animal emerges from the bottom of the water as I take a second photograph. I don’t see it, I sense it: the sound of the shutter has drowned out the sound of the water, the shutter has lowered, obscuring the view. The film is exposed. What happened? What is in the water? Ashes?
An encounter on the surface of the water, on the surface of the film, the trace of which I only discover on my return, after development, after unveiling.
Dread at the image, at the mask emerging from the water. Dread as a sign, something that manifests itself despite ourselves, like the unconscious rising from the depths of the calm, silent water.
The images haunt.
