2023-12-26 16:50:43
In Vevey, Switzerland, the “Affreux Noël” exhibition undermines the smooth and perfect image of Santa Claus. Jean-Marie Donat gleaned 800 family photos from flea markets all over Europe to present the unvarnished or sometimes a little too made-up face of the old gentleman in the red suit. A call for donations has been launched to complete the collection.
He is the children’s favorite grandfather, the universal grandpa with the long white beard, the shiny red suit and the well-stocked hood. Santa Claus, jovial and warm, is always impeccable and makes nostalgic young and old alike dream. So much for the image that we all share in our collective unconscious, with the help of Christmas stories and marketing operations.
However, seeing the 800 photos gleaned over forty years by Jean-Marie Donat, we say to ourselves that the image is too good to be true, a bit like a snapshot on Instagram. In reality, there is no photo, Santa Claus is expensive and makes people dream less, when he doesn’t scare a little.
In an exhibition full of humor, in Vevey, on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, Christmas is displayed in its unvarnished truth, colorful, crazy, offbeat and sometimes frankly missed.
The “Affreux Noël” exhibition offers an offbeat look at “the magic of Christmas” and presents the true face of Santa Claus • © France 3 Alpes / Images Vevey – Jean-Marie Donat
“Collector Jean-Marie Donat scoured flea markets across Europe to bring together a collection of photographs spanning from the 1930s to the 1970s, in which we see the benevolent myth become a nightmare of banalities and clumsiness”we explain at L’Appartement, the venue of the exhibition.
Plastic Christmas trees, terrified faces of toddlers forced to rub shoulders with a paunchy old man, Santa a little too ruddy: in a series of more than 120 photos hung at children’s height, visitors “discover all the little errors in the costumes, all the slightly surprising things and they say to themselves that there are still a bit many Santas, a bit many costumes for us to believe in just one Santa Claus”says Stefano Stoll, director of the Images Vevey Festival.
What makes the attraction here is both the number, but also the humor and the surprise from photo to photo. And it’s true that we feel like we’re leafing through a family album.
Stefano Stoll
director of the Images Vevey Festival
Finally, Santa Claus is perhaps a man like any other.
“I love this image where we see this little child in deep despair on Santa’s knees because that’s where we wonder if it’s not sometimes more the parents than the children who believe to Santa Claus. These are the parents who want to have this souvenir and who want to ensure that their child has met Santa Claus”continue Stefano Stoll.
Each visitor will undoubtedly find a photo that reminds them of their childhood, their home, great bursts of laughter or irreversible disillusionment.
“What is attractive here is both the number, but also the humor and the surprise from photo to photo. And it is true that we have the impression of leafing through a family album and that , I think it’s great”says the director of the exhibition venue.
Moreover, you too can add your stone to the edifice of the clumsy, the absurd and the terrifying good intentions. Images Vevey and L’Appartement appeal to your generosity to collect new photos that can “reflect a funny, awkward, traumatic, offbeat, failed or crazy memory”.
The images will be included in the exhibition and a jury will award a prize to the portraits whose spirit is closest to the collection of Jean-Marie Donat.
So that children, too, are entitled to the kitsch magic of Christmas.
- “Affreux Noël” exhibition, at L’Appartement, Espace Images Vevey, in the lobby of Vevey station, until the end of April 2024.
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