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Video installation (HD, color, sound, 16’36), plaster castings, detention knives, variable dimensions : collaborative work created with the Section des Etudiants Empêchés of Poissy prison, Olivier Royer-Perez and Christophe Ramage

What can archaeology tell us about the conditions of incarceration? How can this science that examines vestiges and archives give us a glimpse of the criminal justice system? Julie Ramage, the archaeologist Olivier Royer-Perez and a group of inmates are analyzing artefacts and technologies that prisoners use daily.

In "Theater and Archaelogy", Mike Pearson and Michael Shanks advocate the necessity of restoring artefacts and speak about a fear of death affecting archeologists in the face of decaying objects. Borrowed from the medical field, the casting technique allows archaeologists to preserve artefacts from deteriorating. Halting an object’s life-cycle can be regarded as a method of healing no different from the preservation of the body.

The castings produced in Poissy's prison elucidate the physiological consequences of detention. Their tools echo the daily survival techniques employed by each inmate. Detention knives designed to offer no advantage in violent activity and issued to incoming inmates by the correctional facility have been transformed over the years into vegetables peelers and screwdrivers. In parallel, some inmates have developed therapeutic tools made of fabrics, ropes and iron wires that undergo a new iteration every day.

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