Foam 3H: Stéphanie Solinas
Sans Titre (Monsieur Bertillon)
23 March - 9 May 2012
In Sans Titre (Monsieur Bertillon), Stéphanie Solinas (France, 1978) investigates the identification system invented by Alphonse Bertillon in the 1880's. Bertillon (Paris, 1853 - 1914) was a French police officer who developed "judicial anthropometry", based on physical measurements and photography. Anthropometrics was the first scientific system to be used by police to identify criminals (previously, the only way was to use unreliable eye witness accounts). Bertillon's method was eventually eclipsed by fingerprinting, but his contributions, such as the mug shot and the system of photographing the crime scene, remain in use today. His system has been progressively extended to all individuals; for Solinas, our face is a surface where Bertillon's inquisitive presence still remains.