The moving exhibition “I have done nothing wrong” on incest to be discovered at the Rencontres d’Arles

On the occasion of the Rencontres d’Arles festival, the German photographer Mika Sperling presents her exhibition “I haven’t done anything wrong”. She explores childhood trauma caused by an incestuous grandfather.

The exhibition won the public vote for the Prix Découverte Louis Roederer. It can be discovered in Arles, at the church of the Brothers Preachers up to August 28.

An intimate and political exhibition

It is an evocative title and double meaning. Refers to the words of victims trapped in fear and guilt, but also that of the pedophile grandfather, who never acknowledged the facts.

“I haven’t done anything wrong” consists of three sets. First, Mika Sperling photographed her very young daughter. Taken between the path of “the childhood home” and the one in which the criminal lived, the images combine two temporalities to reveal better the persistence of family trauma and its transmission over time.

There are also family photos, in which the photographer appears as a child. But the ancestor did been cut from the photo. Leave room for a silhouette which seems to stand with your back, as if to mean the blindness and silence of loved ones And the impunity of the culprit.

Finally, Mika Sperling presents a fictional script text. ” I’m looking for answers “exchanges with the aggressor, silent and now deceased. During the course various objects referring to childhood are arranged: a chessboard of the grandfather or drawings of the children on which the latter was deleted.

Finally, although his face does not appear in the exhibitionhis ghostly presence remains. In this, “I haven’t done anything wrong” unfolds from the intimate to the collective. According to the association Coping with incest, in France, 1 in 10 people claim to have been a victim of incest. Eventually, Mika Sperling starts from her personal story to break up a structural taboo.

Featured image credit: © Mika Sperling