TÉMOIN S21 (1994-1995)
In 1994 Dominique Mérigard visited the infamous S21 in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. In this former elementary school almost 17,000 Cambodians were imprisoned, tortured and murdered. The perpetrators, Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge, photographed every victim before his or her execution. Bewildered, Mérigard began to photograph the building for S21 (1994-1995). Aesthetics could not be allowed to play any role. The barbed wire, the possessions left behind, the photographs of the executed: everything had to be documented as true-to-life as possible. After that, Mérigard felt an irrepressible urge to do portraits of the residents of Phnom Penh. He photographed young and old as evidence of new life, but in each face also saw the portrait of one of their executed countrymen.
