PhotoSaintGermain-Zen Lefort, This Wall

Zen Lefort, This Wall

Northern Ireland still bears the trauma of decades of conflict pitting Irish nationalists against British loyalists. In the heart of Belfast, the "Peace Line", a series of walls and barricades, still divides the capital in two. Erected in 1969, these barriers were intended to be temporary. Faced with the government's inability to stem violence, this interim solution was adopted.

More than forty years later, this temporary measure has become permanent. Every evening, when the twenty or so checkpoints close, Catholics and Protestants retreat into their respective neighborhoods, sustaining the quiet division that settles with nightfall. Each year, on the night of 11 to 12 July, the city's Protestant community gathers around bonfires, towers made of wooden pallets and tires set ablaze to commemorate the victory of William III of Orange over Catholic King James II in 1690. The incandescent lights flooding the city once a year highlight the divisions that persist today. The project This Wall is a multi-year immersion in Belfast between two communities separated by a wall. The "Peace Line", this fracture in the heart of Europe dating from the late 1960's and still without resolution, becomes the photographer's guiding thread.

This exhibition takes place within the framework of the PhotoSaintGermain festival. Organized in the heart of Paris, in the iconic Saint‐Germain‐des‐Prés neighborhood, PhotoSaintGermain is an annual festival dedicated to promoting photographic creation.

PhotoSaintGermain offers a free and freely accessible exhibition tour across a selection of museums, cultural centers, galleries, and bookstores on the Left Bank. This tour highlights a sharp and eclectic program designed by associated galleries, as well as several original exhibitions and novel projects imagined and produced by the festival.