Série Mémoires, N°102, Circa 2020

Pétra Werlé  

In this work from Pétra Werlé's series, an old family portrait is jolted into new life through her uncanny breadcrumb figures. The original photo — a seated adult, a child leaning forward, and their dog — becomes a stage where Werlé inserts hand-sculpted faces and hands, each one expressive, mischievous, and slightly off-kilter.

The transformation is immediate: the child's wide-eyed grin, the adult's almost theatrical mask-like face, and even the dog's startled expression build a surreal chain of gazes that pulls the viewer into a strange little world. The vintage backdrop, with its ornate patterning, contrasts with the fragile organic texture of the bread, creating a tension between memory and invention, stillness and animation.

Werlé's intervention doesn't mock the past — it revives it. She turns what might have been a forgotten photograph into a living, breathing tableau where humour, tenderness, and the uncanny coexist. The result is both playful and haunting, a reminder that every old image hides stories that can still be reinvented.