The high-security psychiatric institution, the police academy, the forensic medicine laboratory: different sites where power is exercised through detention, training, and inquiry. Penetrating into these sites, which are difficult to access, Emmanuelle Léonard looks for signs that reveal the ambiguity of their function; in such places, the guard, the police officer, and the caregiver are no less subject to observation than the criminal and the patient. With an apparent objectivity that is reflected in the coldness of the spaces, her photographs present scenes that are constructed in the interest of simulation, study, and inquiry. Though devoid of action or presence, the spaces themselves make evident the meeting of the real and the fictive, through clues of a form of surveillance which appear among the props and imitations.
Emmanuelle Léonard wishes to thank Nicolet’s École nationale de police du Québec, the Laboratoire de sciences judiciaires et de médecine légale du Québec and the Institut Philippe-Pinel de Montréal for their precious collaboration.
