Mariano. 2025-26. (wip)

In 2025, I was invited to undertake an artist residency in Clermont-Ferrand by Hôtel Fontfreyde, Centre Photographique. The city, whose industrial past was strongly shaped by the Michelin company, is home to several complexes of workers’ gardens. In the Pradelle neighborhood, around thirty plots occupy a former marshland area. Early one June morning, by the roadside, I met Mariano.

Of Spanish origin, recruited by Michelin in the early 1960s, he manufactured inner tubes for nearly forty years. Now 80 and retired, he divides his time between his garden in La Pradelle and another in Beaumont. From April to October, he can spend up to ten hours a day working there. A world of plants, tinkering, salvaged materials, hard work and daydreaming.