Philippe Mairesse's GRORE Agency and the Fate of Found Photographs at Le Triangle

Since 1993, Philippe Mairesse has operated GRORE, the first agency for photographs found on the street, treating discarded images as mutable artworks. At Le Triangle art center in Rennes, a multi-part exhibition from April 20 to July 3, 2001, presents these orphaned photos. The spatial triptych includes a wall covered with printed skins of found images, dominated by blue-green tones, revealing family intimacies and chance scenes. Mairesse invited 150 Rennes residents aged 20 to 80 to sort 180 images from GRORE's photothèque or magazines into two piles: keep or discard. This survey, exploring the contemporary question of choice, is documented through audio, video, comparative tables, and diagrams in the gallery. The exhibition also features a magazine of results and methodology, a set of slogan posters, and a CD of all reactions. Visitors can engage with a similar set of images on a low table, becoming actors in the proposition. The project is co-produced with the Centre de l'estampe et de l'art imprimé in Chatou.