It all started with the holes in the wall. The courtyard walls at MoMA PS1 are cement, with small, structural holes for the wind to come through. And you can peek through them. I have made a lot of photographs of people looking into holes in walls—I can think of one in Chile and one in Morocco, of kids playing with their backpacks, looking through holes. I also have a photo of a person jumping over the wall. In Morocco, the walls surrounding the cities are from defensive forts—the casbah is the fortified zone of the city. They had wooden beams, and you built the terra-cotta walls around them and then removed the beams. So, we also have walls full of holes that are structural in a different sense.
With that motif, I started thinking, “How can you look on the other side of the wall? How can you jump that wall?” One formation that I thought of, one that’s very childlike, is when you link your hands together for someone to climb up. In French, it’s called the “short ladder.” Interestingly, that expression in German is the “thief’s ladder.” It’s linked to childhood, to trespassing. There’s a William Morris wallpaper, Brer Rabbit, where the rabbit is celebrated as the heroic thief. Like Morris, I think some thieves—like those who steal food—are heroes of sorts. So, I was thinking of climbing, looking on the other side, and the idea of helping each other—if you go up, you bring the others with you.
Le Grand Soir is on view at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, Queens, through April 25, 2026.
