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MEXICO

On the trail of the «détectives sauvages»…

Three months of photographic wandering
throughout the streets of Mexico Distrito Federal

Roberto Bolaño

«...and when I tried
to know where I was,
I was in the midst
of the streets...»
Roberto Bolaño

Mexico / Julien Allouf Mexico / L’Etat des choses Mexico / photography

«Life, life.
Red and blue.
Dream and blood.
As in the tales.»
Blaise Cendrars

Bernard Plossu / Julien Allouf

Bernard Plossu note

It is a reading that led me to Mexico...
I went on a journey on the trail of the «détectives sauvages» by Roberto bolaño, and I quickly put the book down to be drawn into the rhythm of the city...

It is a fascination for Roberto Bolaño’s novel «Les détectives sauvages» for its call for breath, for happiness and liberty that made me go on its trail. A wild quest on the trail of the original mess that preceded the writing of this text, what is left of that fiction in Mexico today. I followed the path of the main character Juan Garcia Madero in the first part of the book: Mexicans lost in Mexico. I followed the wandering of this young poet WHO suddenly stopped his law studies to loose himself into the streets of Distrito Federal, here and now, on an adventure, seeking his desires.
On the first days I followed in his footsteps, found the bars he used to go to, the sidewalks he used to walk on, the benches he used to spend his days on reading, and progressively, I was breaking free from that guide, forgetting Bolaño and letting myself go into that new life offered to me..

This project is to be taken as the continuation of A fragmented narration, a quest, an unbridled desire to dive into a reading, that led me, through the twists of the fiction, to dive into the vastness of the Distrito Federal of Mexico.

L’Etat des choses / Mexico

«Sometimes I dream that I am in a city
that is Mexico but that is not Mexico
at the same time. I mean an unknown city,
but I do know it because of other dreams»
Roberto Bolaño

Julien Allouf, photographer

«Reveal new sensations.
Subvert the everyday life.
OK. Unleash everything again.
HIT THE ROAD.»
Roberto Bolaño, Mexico 1976

Mexico / on the trail of the «détectives sauvages»…