At the Rencontres de la photographie d’Arles, special visits to “unblock the memory”

The 55th edition of the photography festival in Arles offers visits to people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Objective: to mobilize memory, open the imagination and escape from a “difficult” daily life.

At the Rencontres d’Arles, exhibition tours are offered for Alzheimer’s patients and their companions. This is the first time that this renowned photography festival, which is held every summer until the end of September, has organized walks for this particular audience. Photography has magical powers over memory.

It is in a chapel that the small group of about ten people has an appointment, to discover one of the many exhibitions of the Rencontres d’Arles. Photos by the artist Nicolas Floc’h, which show all the nuances of the Mississippi River. Faced with Alzheimer’s visitors and their caregivers, Laura, cultural mediator adapts a little but not too much. “I try not to change too much compared to a visit for the general public, not to speak to them like children, but I am careful to speak louder and more slowly and to involve them more so that it unlocks their memory.”she explains.

And it works. The yellow, blue or green colors of the Mississippi, bring back memories of travels to Anne Marie. “We moved around a lot with my son, and there are places with extraordinary water, yes”remembers this woman. Admiring these photos also allows you to try to focus your attention, confides Patrick, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s two years ago. “With regard to the illness, yes, it is important that we can focus on small things because usually we are much more vague, in the clouds.”

“There, we force ourselves to see all these little details and that will allow us to say tomorrow what we saw… Whereas I am incapable, for example, of saying what I ate last night.”

Patrick, Alzheimer’s patient

to franceinfo

Aurélie De Lanlay, deputy director of the Rencontres d’Arles festival, was able to set up these visits thanks to a partnership with the France Alzheimer association and the Swiss Life foundation. “Photography is both a means of mobilizing ancient memory, but it is also an open door to imagination”assures Aurélie De Lanlay, who was very keen on the project. “Among my close friends, my father suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, and I did a lot of photography exhibitions with him. It’s also a moment of joy, exchange, sharing, which allows you to escape from a sometimes difficult daily life.”.

The visit is an interlude as important for the patients as for their caregivers. It ends with a photo workshop to mobilize the senses as much as possible.