when the secondary characters in the paintings tell their story

Maud Gangler participated in the creation of the short program of Arte “Quelle histoire! Enquête sur la toile”, which highlights the secondary characters of the masterpieces of painting. The six web documentaries, available for free, mix art, history and investigation

“Nourishing stories in art, telling and seeing art differently”this is the goal of Maud Gangler, who participated in the creation of a very original documentary series on the Arte platform, entitled “What a story! Investigation on the web”. Playful and instructive, this short program aims to bring to life these forgotten people of history, these characters who are not at the center of a painting, but whose presence often says a lot about the society of the time.

Real and lengthy investigations were based on police archives, land registers and personal letters to carry out this investigative work, says Maud Gangler, who also works at the CAPA – Newen Studios agency. “95% of the documents we found, archives from the 17th or 18th century, are public and just a click away”she says, and it took a lot of work, “two years for six episodes of 10 minutes”, For to trace the lives of these extras, a dwarf, a young eunuch, or a little black-skinned page standing alongside the Countess du Barry.

The six episodes deal with subjects that are still very current: gender, discrimination, slavery: “One of the aims of this series, which will also soon be online on Arte’s YouTube channel, is to bring young people into art”hopes the producer.

“It’s simple, it’s short, we learn and we question the society of yesterday and that of today.”

Maud Gangler, creator of “What a story! Investigation on the web”

to franceinfo

“What a story! Investigation on the web”, six 10-minute episodes to be found on Arte.tv