Les Solèls de Trovic

The pitch

This documentary tells the story of a man born in 1948 in a town located in the North of France: Anzin. A city of the end of the mines and the dying steel industry. As from he was a teenager, on the dark kitchen table of his mineworkers' house, he created a luminous and colourful work, despite his handicaps and his rough and modest environment.

His mosaics, his tapestries made of patchworks and embroideries show a joyful universe which Trovic feels is dying out. Was his handicap, his epilepsy, the founding circumstance of his work, but also what painfully broke his aspiration to join the ordinary human community? This tension, together with his unwavering attachment to the history and culture of his native North, will be at the heart of the issue developped through this documentary.

The project

Francine Auger-Rey had planned to document some artists from the northern region of France, and Jacques Trovic had been indicated to her as a must.

The project was then to make a radio broadcast and a video-slide show. His statements and responses were recorded during two visits to the art workshop at the Pommeraie occupational home(B). A new meeting was scheduled for November. Unfortunately, Jacques passed away suddenly at the age of 70, on October 2018, the 27 th.

These conversations highlighted Trovic's desire for his work to remain recognized. The undeniable awareness he had of the value of his work was moving, as was the very subdued manner in which he attempted to express it, given his high level of dependency.

His death and the fervour of all those who knew him made it urgent and possible to produce a documentary essay to translate in a sensitive way that discovery: the tension of an existence oscillating between marginality and impetus towards the human community, between the confined space of a coroner's kitchen where he produced most of his work, and the luminous space of the world, as it appeared to the artist.

From the testimonies of those who knew him, it is clear that this artist transcended all the ‘obstacles’ of his condition by meticulously constructing, hour after hour, a major body of work. It became necessary to free him from the reductive image of a naïve artist devoted to folklore and the reassuring and hackneyed image of an infantilised North.

It is clear that this project must contribute to the reappropriation of a work by a territory which, although it has regularly organised exhibitions of Jacques Trovic's work and paid tribute to him throughout his life, has not yet given official recognition to his work (a dedicated place, the creation of a catalogue raisonné, research and studies on his work, preservation of his archives).
The documentary could contribute to these objectives.

State of play

In October 2020, 7 days of shooting have already been completed, and 6 days are scheduled for November and December 2021. To support the communication around the project, the decision to create a website dedicated to the documentary is taken, it is published in November 2021.

Since the first reflections and the beginning of the research, the first meetings and interviews carried out towards the end of 2018, what a beautiful journey in the company of the artist Trovic, he is always pulsating with life and his work abounds with colours! We are already at the time of the editing and post-production planned for 2022. With the film team, your support and that of the project partners, the time to share this beautiful story is coming on the screens in 2023...

Watch the trailer on Vimeo