Residency of research and creation

at the Villa Saint-Louis Ndar, French Institute of Saint-Louis.

From 5th October to 3rd November 2019

Saint-Louis-du-Sénégal is a ‘‘Palimpsest City’’, where the waters of the Atlantic Ocean meet with the Senegal River, overflowing with histories. During my residency of research and creation in October 2019 at the Villa Saint-Louis Ndar, I carried on fostering my ongoing series ‘‘Nous avons rendez-vous où les océans se rencontrent’’ (We Come Together Where The Oceans Meet).

Between reality and fiction, I question the present city of Saint-Louis and its history while using the same experimental process: meaning taking photos of Saint-Louis in negative format, and then overlapping these negative formats on the light table with pages of archives images, in order to photograph them again.

By this gesture of superimposition, I advance against History which, by stratification and cumulation of layers, has erased painful moments of history for the benefit of over romanticized stories.