Reproduction

Agen, march 2019.

The train is entering the station, starting the comings and goings of people who get off and on. The four of them arrive in the carriage together, dressed in the same long navy blue skirt. Two of them sit in front of me. After saying goodbye to their parents on the platform, they take out their different books and notebooks, under the responsibility of the elder. With the textbook as a guide, she goes through the list and checks with her sisters that all the exercises are completed and the lessons well learned. She takes her time, the journey being conducive to such a verification. In a few minutes, the two small tables of the carriage are covered with printed and handwritten texts relating to different fields: geography, mathematics, music…. A studious atmosphere sets up. The two girls facing me then take out a correspondence notebook and a sheet of tracing paper with a grid pattern. Without further explanation, one says to the other: “so which one is easier to copy, Dad’s or Mom’s?” With a pencil in hand, she reproduces the chosen signature with a lot of application on the tracing paper. A preliminary step to accurately follow its shape before affixing it directly to the sheet of the correspondence notebook. At the time of copy-paste at every turn, the most age-old writing and falsification technologies have not lost their vigor. They arise even in the most mundane situations.