“Cultural Class” : creation of a photographic exhibition with a CM2 class
As part of the City of Lille’s “Classe Culture” program, I accompanied a class of 5th graders to the Institut pour la photographie to create, mediate and install a photographic exhibition, in two locations and digitally, as part of the Lille 3000 “Nature et Utopie” program.
The method I used to give full scope to the children’s creativity was to set out from the outset a framework within which each of them would have a precise responsibility: to make drawings, to play music, to prepare the scenography, to make objects, to take photographs, to create huts with pieces of wood, to cut out photos, and so on. By listening to the children’s desires, each was given a precise mission, decided together. They worked in parallel with each other, in their own way, producing a wealth of “content” that was complementary and constructive. As everyone was in charge, motivation and emulation were impressive. Then they set up the exhibition and prepared the mediation. And on the afternoon of the first day, visitors came to see the exhibition.
It was autumn, and among other creations, as there were a lot of branches in the courtyard of the Institute, I suggested that some of them build huts, which was the embodiment of the “Nature and Utopia” theme, using what was there. My job was to listen to the young people’s desires, as well as to the possibilities offered by the environment in which we were working, which is an ecological approach, in the etymological sense of the word.
The next morning, other visitors (institutional managers) came in the morning. Instead of them being spectators of the work, the children considered them as visitors and led a mediation for them. This gave them a second opportunity to pass on what they had created. Next, they were keen to take photographs, which they did with several cameras, in small parallel groups, to show each other when they returned. Then they made masks, taking photos of themselves too.
The second day ended with a new presentation of the exhibition extended by their new creations. For them, a third mediation, in front of members of the Institute’s photography staff.
The project had a second stage a few weeks later, during which they prepared, from all their productions made the first time, a very precise layout on two large panels, which would host their exhibition in a public way during a big collective event, in which they also participated with all the other “culture classes” of the city. The experience they had acquired in the first session, and the same method of “parallel missions” based on their desires, enabled them to concentrate and produce a very well-constructed exhibition.
Between these two moments, the digital exhibition, accessible via a QR Code given to each student, and with content validated together, provided a link.
The back-and-forth between creation and presentation, and the missions, the great trust given to the children, their empowerment, constitutes an atypical method, quite destabilizing at first for the teacher, as we also respect the children’s ways of doing things (notably their freedom of movement), which may at first seem disorganized, whereas it is in fact extremely productive, as each person does things in his or her own way, which is therefore much more effective.
The partnership with the Institut pour la photographie’s mediation team (Alice Rougeulle and Noé Kiefer), who commissioned me to work on this project, was also very constructive, thanks to the trust they placed in me to carry out a project in a less prescriptive and disciplinary way than usual. I hope that the attached images and working notes will give you a glimpse into the world of this adventure, which was undoubtedly quite seminal for some of the students. The photographs presented here are only a small part of the thousand or so produced and presented by the children.
Photographs taken by the children, Alice Rougeulle and Benoît Labourdette
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