PARIS.- The Bilad es Sudan exhibition presenting the work of Claude Iverné, winner of the 2015 HCB Award, is on show at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson from May 11 to July 30, 2017. In 1999, Iverné set off along the Darb al Arba'ïn, Forty Day Trail, the ancient caravan route linking Egypt and the sultanate of Darfur. Here, he discovered a country steeped in contrasting influences, and the project to document this land of Sudan was born. Other trips followed. Wandering seemed the obvious choice for him, life rather than a journey, even to the point of learning the Arabic language.

For the 2015 HCB Award, Iverné wanted to continue his project in South Sudan, the 193rd country of our planet, as he attempted to sketch out its historical details and map its contemporary contours. This second phase is intended to mirror his project in North Sudan; while the North is depicted in black and white, Claude Iverné preferred colour for the South to echo its ambient hubbub. He records the precipitous transformation of a country still passionate about nomadism to a market economy, thus concluding his Sudanese epic. Given the current situation in Southern Sudan, adaptations had to be made, a change in course adopted; the travelling photographer had to take to the side roads. After his photographs in Africa2, he set his compass from Trégastel to the Vallée de la Roya, via the Vincennes forest, to meet Sudanese refugees who, unintentionally, created another map for this project.

The path, the loss of reference points, the experience of the territory seem far more important to Claude Iverné than the clear statement of a message. Imposing a vision of Sudan was certainly not his aim. Quite a challenge when you’ve been roaming the country for nearly twenty years with the intention of writing, then documenting and, above all, “taming your free will and cultivating a certain taste for the banal and the ordinary”.

His black and white work fluctuates between an anthropological approach – the captions are extremely detailed, but always distant from the images – and a silent maze where everyone is asked to find their way. Iverné’s work frees itself from the paradox between pure portrayal of a territory and the photographer’s aesthetic. Although he won’t admit it, he practices the art of framing, finding the right distance and printing with grace.

The political situation in South Sudan is extremely tense, and Iverné’s wandering and slow immersion is now impossible; inhabitants are fleeing in their thousands to take refuge elsewhere. So, he decides to go and meet them, without pathos, taking the viewer from the nomadic tents of the desert to those on the outskirts of French cities, the song halting on striking portraits.

The Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson is showing one of the “drafts” of this immense work, one of the strata of this collection, in collaboration with the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, partner of the HCB Award. The exhibition includes more than one hundred prints, videos, documents and objects.

It will be shown at the Aperture Foundation in New York from September 15 to November 9, 2017. A book published by Éditions Xavier Barral accompanies the exhibition, providing a different reading, a transformed essay, a friable stone in the fragile edifice of history: “doesn’t a private thought have historical value when it’s shared publicly?”3. It includes an introduction by Claude Iverné and an interview with Quentin Bajac by Jonas Cuénin.