7 Days
7 Days
2020
“In one form or another, ranging from the misery of refugee camps to the cosseted luxury of five-star hotels, some experience of non-place is today an essential component of all social existence. [...] It is no longer possible for a social analysis to dispense with individuals, nor for an analysis of individuals to ignore the spaces through which they are in transit." Marc Augé, Non-Places, Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity
7 Days is the result of observation of a local petrol station, situated on the outskirts of a Swiss city whose agglomeration has more than 400,000 inhabitants. Symbol of a once radiant petroleum utopia, this place that could be described as a non-place - in the words of anthropologist and writer Marc Augé - originally existed only to provide fuel to power our vehicles. Over time and with the evolution of our society, petrol stations have changed and expanded their vocation to become fast-consuming establishments and, by virtue of their function, bring together a heterogeneous multitude of individuals. In this commonplace, there are no longer any distinctions in terms of gender, origin or social class. It brings together all the different strata of our society. The elderly and the young, wealthy and distressed individuals, men and women - the list is endless. So to speak, petrol stations form privileged observation posts, samples of the contemporary human community and its behaviours. Employed for more than three years in this particular passage place, I was able to immerse myself in its atmosphere to narrate it from an internal and subjective point of view. I saw there a laboratory where the days follow one another in an inextricable cycle; they imitate and resemble each other, dependent on this generic and sanitised environment. A living flow, the microcosm of which is illustrated by the use of video surveillance images. The hours are broken down into scenes with their specific protagonists and their variables, like an absurd theatre, a refuge of all possibilities, leaving room for countless interpretations. The pungent smell of fuel spreading and the muffled purr of engines, the incessant hum of overloaded refrigerators and the metallic clatter of coins; behind the counter, a universe takes shape. These diverse sketches combine and depict an intriguing world, a modern and human play, where recklessness meets pathos and where the everyday mundane becomes a hypothetical and singular story.
