It is during an exchange between Arles and the Universit? Saint-Esprit Kaslik that Fournier, moved by curiosity and a desire to see Lebanon with his own eyes, accompanied his students. "I immediately, totally fell in love with it. I have since returned twice within the same pedagogic context." Fascinated with the place, Fournier looked for an idea that would merge his photographic work with it, and inspiration came from a eucalyptus tree planted in his garden back home in Montpellier. "It struck me as a work of art in itself. So for three years and a half I invited people to pose at the foot of the tree. Both strangers and friends – people of a day or people of all days." The frame was fixed, the tree living its life and changing with time while the human actors placed themselves freely around it. It then occurred to him to extend the idea to Lebanon. "Every time I return to France all my friends ask about is: 'So, the cedarsÉ' and I keep telling them 'you know, there aren't just cedars in Lebanon!' So I presented this project where the roles are reversed and I now ask people to take me to their own tree." The Centre Culturel Fran?ais took to the idea at once. After taking the pictures in September and producing them, the plan is to hold the exhibit in February, then circulate it all over Lebanon before finally showing it in Arles next summer.

The photos show the tree in its environment along with a trace of the person. If it is absent, Fournier treats its location with the same interest, and if it's inaccessible, he asks the person to pose with a picture of their tree. A text elaborating on the reasons of their attachment, in French and Arabic, will be part of the exhibit: as a matter of fact, the work is composed of both image and text, inseparably. "What I am interested in and has marked all of my work is the relationship of people to things. In this project the real story is that between the person and the tree." The simplicity of the concept is deceptive: the enormous response Fournier received testifies to the fact it struck a deep chord. The stories he gathered run the gamut from modest and touching to epic and heartbreaking.

Smirking in advance he suddenly asks: "We're in Gemmayze. Do you know what Gemmayze is? It's a tree!" A tree with fruits like little red figs, that grew on this hill and was still well-known fifty years ago, but has now fallen into oblivion. "A very old man in Tripoli took me to gemmayze trees he had planted himself. Their fruits used to be sold on the market, but now their only use is to provide shade for the workersÉ"

Opposite on the spectrum is the thousand-year-old oak of Ayn Trez in the Chouf, whose branches extend 30 meters outwards. It is located within the estate of the el Saad family, who consider that the tree belongs to all Lebanese people and allow visits to it. Indeed all treaties and important reunions of the country's history took place under this great tree.
"I'll say no more", Fournier winks. "You'll discover the rest!" W can expect about 35 similar stories captured by camera and text. "It's very little, but it's representative, and I hope viewers will be sensitive to the contrasts within the series. The exhibition is not a pure documentary, it is art-oriented, but still has the ambition of making people ask themselves questions about the country – and by that I mean both Lebanese and foreigners."

For a personal artistic statement, Fournier refers to his school in Arles, where "we ponder the power of the image and the responsibility of the artist that uses the photographic image", and to the credo of Fluxus, a movement born in the United States around 1960 that is still important in France. He quotes one of its figures, Robert Filliou: "Art is what makes life more interesting than art" – and explains that this is what he applies to his work in Lebanon. "What I offer are stories of life, and it is as important for me to do it as it is to show it. To find oneself sitting at the table of a peasant family, chatting, that also is art," he shares warmly. It is no secret that this project is bringing him as much on a personal level as it is likely to bring us in terms of patrimony, as he goes on: "I've met people and places that were extraordinary. I've been everywhere, to the poor and the rich, Muslims and Christians – and yes I now know all this stuff about the people in 'Kas' or Hamra", he laughs. "I plan on returning several times, I have too many friends here now. Lebanon has become my second country."

Article by Joumana Medlej