Douce France
- part one: Parisian Dream
This part of project consists of two elements. One is a series of "video-collages" where I show the idyllic life in Paris, showing the lives of people in different districts of the city as seen through the eyes of a passer-by. The second part is a series of videos recorded during meetings with people who came to France from different countries. The idea is to meet with immigrants and refugees to learn about their reasons and expectations, why they came to France, to give them the opportunity to talk about themselves, but also to show their values, their stories. The project has started in Paris and has been continued in other places.
This project is the continuation of a series of videos made between 2002 and 2009 that deal with the problems of the world around us, linked to the fact that we find ourselves in a certain environment every day and are always in relationships (with people, objects, but also new situations). On the one hand, then, the aim is to explore why immigrants and refugees want to live in France at all costs, what dreams are involved and what reality awaits them. But the project also has a strong philosophical basis.
When refugees come to France, they bring with them their cultures, their thoughts and their judgements - that's why the difference is so visible and can be made. But it is not a difference in the negative sense but, as Deleuze said, this difference must emerge as itself and not as the opposition of something else.
The project considers the question of the border (which I talk about in my artistic approach and my note of intent). I'm interested in what belongs to two different worlds and at the same time can't belong to either of them. This problematic is discerned here from a social and geographical point of view (refugees no longer belong to the country where they were born, nor even to the country where they have just arrived because, pending the regulation of their situation, they have no status or rights).
The first part was begun in Paris in 2017, and is entitled Parisian Dream. The second part was made in the countryside, on the Plateau de Millevaches, during the Transat residency with Tina Smerdel (a librarian I invited to the project to make a documentary film) and the inhabitants of a refugee centre at Huda (Saint Martin-Château in Limousin).
Parisian Dream I
video-collage, loop
fragment
Parisian Dream 2
video-collage, loop
fragment
Parisian Dream III
video
This is the recording of conversation with a woman from Mali and her struggling story
Douce France
- part two: Plateau de Millevaches
This part was produced during a 4-week residency in Limousin. The aim of the residency was to work together with asylum seekers living at Huda, so several workshops were offered. The final exhibition included the work of all the participants, made during the workshops, a short video from workshops made by Tina Smerdel and two classic 4 m long drawings, each drawn by Anna Sieradzka-Kubacka and completed by the participants: Godwin (who drew the traditional decoration on his necklace already drawn by the artist) and Hanif (who wrote his own poem on a sheet of paper drawn for this long drawing by the artist).
The drawings on show are still in progress, and their final form will be enriched with audio (the recordings made during the residency) and images of other asylum seekers. In fact, a drawing several metres long with elements drawn by the refugees, linked with sound or video are planned.
The project is ongoing and will be developed with an audio version and video collages.
View of the Transat residency exhibition, Erba d'Agram, Lagathe, Saint-Martin-Château, 2022
Anna Sieradzka-Kubacka's drawing
View of the Transat residency exhibition, Erba d'Agram, Lagathe, Saint-Martin-Château, 2022
Anna Sieradzka-Kubacka's drawing (4 m long) and works by workshop participants in the corner
Anna Sieradzka-Kubacka's drawing, fragment with a poem written by a workshop's participant, Hanif
View of the Transat residency exhibition, workshop's participants works,
Erba d'Agram, Lagathe, Saint-Martin-Château, 2022