Wilder Mann

For two years in 2010 and 2011, Charles Fréger criss-crossed Europe from north to south, from Finland to Portugal, passing through Romania, Germany, and Slovenia, in search of the figure of the savage as it survives in local popular traditions. These images, like archetypes, half-man half-beast, animal or vegetable, resurface from the depths of time on the occasion of ritualistic, pagan, or religious festivals, celebrating the cycle of the seasons, the fat days, carnival, or the eve of Easter.