Present! Series of portraits of BLOC1 students by Thierry Maroit
This week, a photo album was displayed on the IHECS Instagram account featuring first-year Bachelor students in our buildings. Thierry Maroit, media coordinator and photography teacher, gave 38 of them the opportunity to be in front of the camera for a couple of hours, also allowing them to have a brief tour of the buildings they have been unable to visit, or have only seldom been able to visit, following the health crisis.
"Everything is anonymous, everything is imaginary. My virtual students, all together in one feed, are present but absent at the same time. I teach in an empty auditorium. I can’t see who is on the other end of the streaming signal. Come to think of it, it’s like being on the radio, where the hosts never see their listeners either. I can’t make eye contact, can’t answer any questions, can’t take requests, and can’t even put a face to a project. There’s no dialogue, no gossip. A disembodied link is maintained by a mere handful of emails. A topsyturvy class. In any case, it upsets me.
I miss them.
There are currently no students on the premises, The factory of dreams and projects is empty, there’s no movement, no exclamation, no whisper. No meeting.
Nevertheless, I want to find a way to enable them to exist visually, within our community, our buildings, among themselves. I must try and recreate a bond in space, as if they were there. I propose taking photographic portaits of B1 students in our buildings. 38 of them volunteer."
Thierry Maroit, Media Coordinator.
The rest of this project will be displayed over the coming weeks on the IHECS Instagram account and the entire series will feature on our Facebook account at the end of May.
An exhibition of these photographs will also be set up in the hallway on the ground floor of the Étuve building next to Loft 58.