Scratched Topographies

School desk surfaces, isolated and presented flat.

A school desk is not merely a functional piece of wooden furniture; it is a geography of suppressed emotions. It serves as a silent witness to the anxieties, daydreams and quiet rebellions of a generation confined within the rigid structures of an educational system.

In this series, I approach these surfaces as contemporary archaeological sites. The deep scratches, the peeling layers of paint, the meticulously carved names and the cryptic formulas form a complex palimpsest of youth. By isolating these surfaces from their environment and presenting them as flat, objective typologies, the project shifts the focus from the physical space of the classroom to the psychological landscape of its inhabitants.

These images are topographies of the unseen. They do not show the students, yet they are the most intimate portraits of their presence, their boredom, their survival, and their urgent need to leave a trace — a proof of existence — on the very structures designed to discipline them.