Mathild Clerc-Verhoeven was selected for Rietveld Review(ed) 2021
-French Shopping, an Anthology
It is a continuation of my thesis, about shoplifting.
I interviewed shoplifters, I proposed to make them a piece of clothe for their practice. Together we discussed craft. Me, as a tailor, them, as shoplifter, we met through garments, and pockets. Their craft along with the practice of everyday life. How shoplifting it is not just something that they do, but also what shoplifting does to them!
Together, we revealed subjectivities.
Their subversive subjectivities. I’ve been amazed by these singular experiences, sharp and fragile, illegal theories. I wanted to share these interviews, but their words are, I think, extremely vulnerable. I made a publication from all these interviews, an anthology of talks. The retranscription of their conversations, stories, their social, political, ethical, and moral perspectives around shoplifting.
My aim was to set up, through words, the (potentially) impossible encounter between different subjectivities.
I’m therefore asking other people to read, and discover these texts, in front of a camera. I had no expectation, only an immense gratitude to these who played the game of this subjective encounter. What does it triggers in us, to embody for a moment ones word, thought, morals...
-The pockets and clothes which I made for them.
-The publication gathering all the conversations.
-The video, people sitting on a chair or a sofa, in their office or living room, reading the words of someone they don’t know. They’ll bump on certain words, smile and frown...
