Roger Ballen's Boarding House and Esther Shalev-Gerz Retrospective in Paris

Two major photography exhibitions opened in Paris in early 2010. At Galerie Kamel Mennour, Roger Ballen presented 'Boarding House' (January 5 – February 6, 2010), a series documenting a dilapidated warehouse on the outskirts of Johannesburg built in the early 19th century for gold mining, now overcrowded and unsanitary, inhabited by poor workers, homeless, criminals, and witches. Ballen's stark black-and-white images capture graffiti, torn furniture, dried plants, and twisted wire hangers, with occasional glimpses of a child's body or broken dolls, evoking the works of Artaud, Beckett, and Céline. At the Galerie nationale du Jeu de paume, the retrospective 'Ton image me regarde !?' (February 9 – June 6, 2010) showcased Esther Shalev-Gerz's work, known for the collaborative 'Monument against Fascism' (1986–1993) in Hamburg-Harburg. The exhibition included 'The Berlin Instruction' (1998), filming audiences interpreting Peter Weiss's play 'Die Ermittlung'; 'Last Witnesses, Auschwitz 1945–2005', capturing survivors' silent faces; 'Menschen Dinge' (2004–2006), featuring objects from Buchenwald; and 'White-Out: Between Listening and Speech' (2002), revealing that the Sami language has no word for 'war'. Also mentioned is Lisette Model's exhibition and Luc Choquer's book 'Les Vieux. Histoire muette du 3e âge' (Anabet), portraying the elderly.