On April 2, 2024, La Poste issues a stamp featuring Agnès Varda, a photographer, filmmaker, and visual artist who passed away five years ago. As a photographer, filmmaker, and visual artist, Agnès Varda continuously opened new doors and experimented with different means of expression, driven by what she called the "urgency to capture the fragile and magnificent moment." Her highly personal work, spanning documentary, fiction, and autobiography, mostly narrates life moments, from the difficulty of living to the joy of happiness. Agnès Varda initially focused on photography. Since 1949, she became the official photographer of the Avignon Festival and the Théâtre National Populaire. She maintained a taste for rigor, aiming to "reach the largest number by setting the bar very high." Her mission was accomplished with her first film, La Pointe courte (1954). A radical film, heralding the New Wave, where she created her own language. Breaking free from the codes of the time, she reinvented narrative construction, breaking down the boundaries between documentary and fiction. Her filmography includes over 40 short and feature films. She tackled difficult subjects: homelessness in France with Vagabond (1985), which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, overconsumption with The Gleaners and I (2000), the feminist cause with One Sings, the Other Doesn't (1977), and the social upheavals of the world... Far from being moralistic, rooted in her time, she aimed to advance causes with a fine balance between the objectivity of reality and the subjectivity of reverie. Jacquot de Nantes (1991), dedicated to her husband and collaborator Jacques Demy, delves into the path of intimate memory. In 2003, invited to the Venice Biennale, she successfully embarked on a new career as a visual artist, pioneering the format of contemporary art installations. As independent as her feline friends, faithful to her legendary bowl cut, joyful, and above all, free, Agnès Varda leaves behind a rare body of work with international renown.
