Minuit brûle
France
2025
In 2015, Cendre was the victim of homophobic assault in a street of Bordeaux. When they reported the incident, they were told that the full moon was to blame. This event is the starting point of Minuit brûle [Midnight’s burning], a project that explores trauma, rage and nighttime. This series examines three cycles: that of the moon, homophobic assaults and Cendre’s own. They use an alternative process that consists in dipping films in their own menstrual blood to alter them. Like the artist, these images become survivors, between destruction and care, they exist despite and due to the damage they were subjected to.
The unnerving figure of the predator runs through the project with 180 risographs, thus reminding us of the yearly average number of homophobic physical assaults recorded in France by SOS Homophobie in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Portfolio
About the artist
Born in 1992, Cendre is a visual artist working and living in Saint-Étienne, France. A self-taught ecologist, they have an engineering degree in agronomy and a Masters in ecology. Their work has been exhibited in spazioSERRA in Milan, at Nuit de l’Année in Arles and at the Les Nuits Photo festival in Paris.