Giacometti, la rue d’un seul

The variations of a writer around the work of an artist can give very disimilar results. The exercice Tahar Ben Jelloun set for himself is not entirely convincing when he places Giacometti’s famous twig size men in the medina of Fes or when he tries to give them faces in the anonymous Parisian metro. His very recent visit to the sculptor’s workshop, in the small street of Hippolyte-Maindron in the XIVth arrondissement, is more moving. Time seems suspended between the charcoal sketches on the walls and the old table with drawers, Giacometti seems to have walked out yesterday. Undoubtedly marked by the spirit of the location, the tenants don’t dare make any changes. And we would not be surprised to see Beckett’s ghost appear nor Genet’s who knew how to find sculptures the artist used to forget in corners.

• Giacometti, la rue d’un seul, by Tahar Ben Jelloun, Gallimard, 2006, ISBN : 2-07-078190-9, 20 €