an exhibition to raise awareness of the dangers of the road

To enable Ile-de-France residents to become aware of the dangers of the road, an exhibition has taken up residence at the Halle des Blancs Manteaux, in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. Called “Project 102”, it consists of a stroll around 102 works by 102 artists. Next to these paintings or sculptures are affixed 102 testimonies of victims or relatives of victims of road accidents, caregivers or gendarmes called to the scene of these tragedies. Everything therefore revolves around the number 102, which is far from having been taken at random: it is the number of children who died on the roads of France in 2019. The objective of this exhibition is to make visitors aware of the road safety. “Children never drive, they are always passengers, at worst they will buy a pain au chocolat at the bakery, but it is not normal for these most fragile beings to be affected in this way.“, launches Master Charles-Henri Coppet, at the origin of the project.

Draw attention

At the entrance to the room, a work catches the eye: a bright blue hand painted on wood by Caroline Faindt. The artist wanted to represent a hand because “it’s the hand that protects us, but it’s also the hand that says stop and alerts”. On her painting, she wrote the words “joy”, “life”, “love” or even “peace”. She favored bright colors, flower designs to bring a message of hope and life “to show that life goes on“.

Next to this work, visitors can discover the testimony of Carine Loison. This 27-year-old Frenchwoman wanted to share her experience and more particularly the terrible road accident she suffered in 2018 in Thailand. While she is on a motorcycle, a truck cuts her off and she finds herself on her wheel. She underwent several operations, including skin grafts. “So far I have undergone 51 general anesthesias in 226 days of hospitalization“, she describes in her testimony. But she does not want to dwell on her medical journey, she especially wants to remember that “everything is surmountable, we can get by and succeed in doing something beautiful“.

“Every week, police or gendarmes will announce to parents that they will not see their children again”, Me Charles-Henri Coppet

If Carine accepted without hesitation to testify for “Project 102” it was also to be able to alert visitors and do some “prevention“.”We hear about accidents, but we don’t really know what impact it has on people’s lives“, she regrets. She hopes that through these testimonies, “visitors will be able to put a name, an image on what is happening” and raise awareness.

Strolling through the aisles of the Halle des Blancs Manteaux, all visitors linger in front of the testimonies, some even have tears in their eyes. This is the case of Eric who is slowly progressing from work to work. “I had already experienced several awareness campaigns against speeding or alcohol, but seeing all these paintings and testimonials makes you want to cry“, he explains. He says he is particularly marked by the testimonies of children, so much so that it makes him reflect on his own behavior as a road user: “When we are driving a car or a bicycle, we sometimes commit an offense and we say to ourselves that it is not very serious, but the “not very serious”, we realize that it can have very serious consequences“, he admits.

make you think

This exhibition is a real “uninterrupted dialogue between the works of art and the testimonials so that visitors can walk away with an overview and the feeling that this figure [de 102 enfants morts sur les routes en 2019] is abnormal“, explains the initiator of the project, Maître Charles-Henri Coppet. This lawyer specializing in bodily injury and victims’ rights had already carried out similar projects by launching “Project 57” in Guadeloupe in 2016 to alert on “57 people died on the roads in 2016 in Guadeloupe“; and in 2018 in Valencia with “Project 37” in “memory of the 37 people who died on the roads of Drôme” this year.

If these figures are not secret, and put forward by the authorities in each road safety awareness campaign, Charles-Henri Coppet believes that “very often people forget them because they are scary numbers, so we turn our heads away“. But by combining this difficult subject with art, the lawyer wants “catch the eye” and change mentalities. “From the moment we retain this figure, through the prism of art, we have already gained something because in the unconscious, we know that it is not right and when we know that something is not right, we try to act“, he adds.

To raise the awareness of as many people as possible, the exhibition will become itinerant after the presidential election, starting in May, throughout France. In the meantime, it is open at the Halle des Blancs Manteaux until Tuesday, every day from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and admission is free.