Europa

I traveled to different European countries, in a fortuitous, haphazard way, in a time without urgency. Very early on, places, gestures and contrasts revealing experiences were imbued in my memory. Today, while we are faced with great migrations, especially since the end of the 19th century, we still find, in this old Europe, steeped in cultures and civilizations, places where time has stood still, where populations have remained in a vacuum, timeless. These are places I have approached, forgetting the time, perhaps before my birth. But I also explored other places of migration where I no longer knew in which country I was. In 2018, an exhibition titled Zone aroused multiple resonances in my memories. Organized at the Lumière des Roses Gallery in Montreuil, it presented this 250 m wide strip of land that ran along the 34 km of fortifications erected in 1844 around Paris. Later, this area was occupied by a poor population, driven out of the City of Light and its homes. Unsanitary barracks without water and electricity; belt of misery to which successive migrations were added. From time to time, I explore this long neglected margin, now drowned under the term suburb. I look for it and find there a poetic sense, often deserted by big cities. This award will allow the continuity of my work