As part of the 200LUX exhibition, bringing together festivals that are members of the Réseau LUX, Photo Days has invited Véronique Ellena to present her series Mains d’œuvre, which explores the world of workers and craftspeople in training.
For this series, supported by the CNAP and presented at Hangar in 2026, the artist entered a vocational training centre, the AFPA in Bourg-en-Bresse, where she immersed herself in the environment and observed how people and things are shaped together, within a space still somewhat sheltered from the sometimes harsh realities of working life.
In this small world, gestures are passed on and repeated, while trainees and instructors share a common goal: the care taken to do things well. The workshops, objects and machines, though functional, are also sources of inspiration; the colours are bold and the light is striking. Beauty emerges in unexpected and poetic ways.
Mains d’œuvre reveals the very contemporary and essential nature of manual work, while bringing visibility to those whose skills are fundamental to the way the world functions.
