Text-Face | delphinericher

This action art was created in relation to the specific characteristics of the country and the village in which it was performed: the village of BaiLu Zhen, in Sichuan, China.

Completely destroyed by an earthquake in 2008, the village was rebuilt based on a French architectural model. This choice was motivated by two factors:

The history of the village. In 1860, French Catholic missionaries established a vast seminary a few kilometres away.
The desire to revive the village's economy after the earthquake.

Thereby, BaiLu Zhen with its Western appearance had become a tourist attraction, the ideal destination for a relaxing getaway or for taking romantic wedding photos. The local residents seem to inhabit the movie set of a film that would necessarily be joyful.

Delphine already knew the importance of “the face” (面子) in the Chinese culture.

Action

Delphine Richer chose a crowdy day, Saturday, to stend smiling at the entrance of the village. From the hour of the arrival of the first tour bus (7:30 a.m.) to the departure of the last visitor (7:30 p.m.), Delphine remained unfailingly smiling at that spot.

During this 12-hour action art, all kinds of people approached her. Some was friendly and courteous, some other was intimidated but curious and some was invasive and rude seeing the artist as an object at their disposal. A wide range of personalities distinguished themselves within the situation the artwork designed.

In this culture where the individual must not show any weakness, any excess and always show the best side of himself, the French artist had to control her emotions and her fatigue in order to keep her face.

Visitors' first impressions and their spontaneous behaviour toward Delphine were inevitably called into question when, guided by the layout of the streets the tourists were walking past the artist again while leaving the village.

Noticing that Delphine Richer was still in this site, still imperturbably smiling they ultimately wonder about the reason for her presence. Then, they started questioning themselves about the status of their photographs and what they actually represent in the end.

Like facing a mirror, they began to observe the newcomers which were spontaneously interacting with tha artist as they did themselves earlier.