Souvenir

Set of 16 RIGIPACK envelopes with painting and collage of photocopies
16 elements, 44 x 37 cm each

This work was created by artist Mili Presman at the invitation of RAJA Group, when the company’s offices were still located in the Belleville district of Paris – a neighbourhood where the artist also had her studio.  Among the materials provided by RAJA, Presman turned to RIGIPACK envelopes, which she saw as having an affinity with the suitcase motif that is a common feature of her work.   A suitcase is a symbolic object that represents what we carry with us, from physical objects to our inner states. Presman draws a parallel with the envelope, an everyday container that travels and sometimes holds a lot in very little space… Presman works with models, whom she photographs, then photocopies her own images to create her compositions. For this work, the artist was inspired by the story of the creation of Cartons RAJA by two women in post-war Paris, weaving her own narrative around this memory. The writing on the envelopes is deliberately illegible: this allows everyone to project their own “memories” onto the anonymous silhouettes that punctuate the surface of the envelopes. Off-centre, the figures suggest movement and waiting. Suitcases open and close; feet stop and start again…