Introduction

Between 1996 and 1997, Julia Scher photographed seven children wearing pink uniforms: Lena, Grace, Andy, Andre, Brandon, Jodi and Zoë. Some of them held up batons or gas masks, others just stared defiantly at the camera. In the following months, Scher enlarged these images and integrated them into an installation which traveled and evolved in time: 1997, Chicago; 1998, New York; 2000, Bordeaux ; 2018–2019, Berlin. Over the years, the principle has remained the same: a child-sized control desk surrounded by distorting mirrors bathed in twilight-colored lights. The recorded voice of the artist warns the audience: “There are live cameras filming you [...] Attention. Your size may change”. This is Wonderland, an upside-down world where children watch over adults downsized in the reflections of mirrors.

Wonderland is the second part of The Artificial Kid series of exhibitions and events at Maison Populaire. This multimedia environment where children act as authority figures, plays on the context of the Maison Populaire, whose members are largely children encouraged to leave their parents on the doorstep and where teenagers are considered adults from the age of 13. Created for children, Wonderland parodies adults' attitudes towards protection or threat, and their own infantilization in surveillance contexts.

Curator: Elsa Vettier

Founded in 1966 in Montreuil, Maison Populaire is a cultural center dedicated to popular education. Focusing on research and experimentation, Maison Populaire hosts an art center and each year invites a different curator for a cycle of exhibitions and events.


Julia Scher
Wonderland
Maison Populaire
9 bis Rue Dombasle
93100 Montreuil
May 25 – July 15, 2022
www.maisonpop.fr