Edmond Concorde, KH7artspace, 2022

I 1877 skriver den franske forfatter Edmond De Goncourt for 1. gang ordet B-E-I-G-E i romanen “La Fille Élisa”.
I romanen handler om en unge kvinde som prostitueres af nød. Hun bliver imidlertid kæreste med en soldat og en aftenstur i Boulogne skoven forsøger han at voldtage hende og hun stikker ham ihjel. Herefter kommer hun i fængsel som var det værste sted i datidens Paris. Der er nogle helt forfærdelige regler og begrænsninger og Élisa ender med at blive sindsyg og gå i barndom. På et tidspunkt kommer fortælleren på besøg og beskriver hendes tilstand "som hun ligger der i hendes beskidte BEIGE kjole" som er farven på den ordinære fængselskjole spundet og vævet af råuld. Siden da er ordet BEIGE  indgået som fællesnævner for farven som har bredt til mange dele af verden.

I 1972 møder Bodil Sohn for første gang Jean Luc på en arbejdsrejse til Vaunières i Frankrig. Her 48 år efter, midt i coronapandamien, mødes de to igen og imellem dem opstår en særlig forbindelse. En forbindelse som måske startede allerede for 48 år siden og som i den mellemliggende tid har modnet sig til en meget stor passion. Min tænkte at min beige passion var næsen lige så stor, men efter at have interviewet Bodil om mødet med Jean Luc må jeg vige pladsen.

Jean Luc har efterfølgende læst bogen “La Fille Èlisa” og anmelder den i teksten til højre.

Jeg har selv kendt Bodil Sohn siden midten af 1990’erne.

“«La Fille Élisa», is the story of a prostitute, who practice her trade in many different circonstances, before to fall in love with a sol- dier in Paris. During a walk in a wood near Paris, she kills this man as he tries to rape her. After this crime she is sentenced to death, but pardoned at the last moment. From this moment begins, for her, a very hard life in a women’s jail, where the director follows the instructions of an American criminalist called Auburn, who consider that the best method to contain agres- sion of the prisoners is to ban completely them to speak. Despite the very bad results of this method, the director, completely stubborn, remain convinced of being right. The novel describes the progressive descent of Élisa towards madness, and the different steps of this process until the moment when she completely falls back to childhood. The last pages, devoted to her childhood remembering are really upsetting ! (...and I would say, particularly touching for me because her childhood took place in the country of the Vosges, where my family comes from, and the author uses many word coming from this place...)

I red this book with a full passion for the quality of the style (every sentence is the perfect work of an inspired craftsman ), the lucidity in describing the persons and the events, and the lack of complacency about the subject of prostitution. It is not at all the book of a « voyeur », made to attract a large public eager to sordid revelations. At the contrary, it is a very precise description of a situation of social injustice, with, at the end, the complete incomprehension of the authorities inside the jail. The prison is placed just near the lunatic asylum, like the early women’s prison «La Force», in Paris, that I visited a few month ago. The book describes how the prisoners are more and more separated of any kind of human relations, and how they become imbeciles, before to loose completely their mind. At the end, the writer himself come on stage, discussing with the hight authorities of the area and all the book seems to be a sort of witness with very precise observations.

In my opinion it is a masterpiece. All the descriptions shows a real clarity of mind, a full intelligence. The life of Élisa is shown from the beginning, when she lives with her mother and brothers and sisters. Her mother is « sagefemme» and abortionist and Élisa falls into prostitution to escape to this horrible home...

And the «beige»? The beige is the colour of the clothes that wear the prisoners in the place where they have to do very easy jobs, choose for insane persons, unable to do any- thing else. A sentence from the book, chapter LVII (telling how the director doesn’t care about any psychology...): «Qu’une prisonnière n’eût pas sur le dos une bonne robe de droguet ou de laine beige, n’eût pas dans le ventre la ration de pain et de soupe maigre, voilà tout ce dont, à ces yeux, une prisonnière pouvait souf- frir.... » (the « droguet » is a very sheap wool used for the prisoner’s dresses). In the book, this place is called « la cordonnerie » where the prisoners realise ropes (...beiges....)

The structure of the novel is also inter- esting but too long to describe here. Anyway I was very glad to read this book that I discovered in your beige exhibition full of ideas in Aarhus. Very sincerely yours,

Jean-Luc

Notes:
Reading the Goncourt’s diary, I find from time to time small texts in relation with « La Fille Elisa »

...the visit of Edmond de Goncourt to a womens prison, when he had the idea to write the book,

...His pride to see that his book was present in the showcases of all the good bookstores in Paris (it was a success !... even if this book is not well known nowadays)

...he speaks also about the play made from his book...and the reac- tions of the spectators...

But you remember probably that I told you that I wanted to add some- thing to the summary I did.

It is this one: In front of the juges, the girl is absolutely unable to de- fend herself. Unable to explain anything, because she feels inside to be nothing since her early childhood. The juges don’t see that, nobody understand that. So she is sentenced to death (and the sentence is commuted in prison for life). All the story is built on this theme of lack of understanding and also the ease of evil. That’s the reason why this book appears being so cleaver, so lucid about social injustice...