Les Portés, 2017, Installation/photographs

In the installation Les Portés (2017), photographs of various sizes are affixed
on the wall. They are issued from postcards made in Ivory Coast between
1908 and 1937. Some are shown integrally, perpendicularly to the wall. Others
reveal only a portion of the image, as if the rest was hidden in the wall. These
postcards portray settlers in Ivory Coast, carried in hammocks or chairs by
Africans who are probably Ivorians.
In some of the images, the artist has erased some elements so that one can only
see the settlers appearing in a situation of «carried», as well as the text of the
postcard. The pixelated background refers to the present time. The men who
seem to be floating in space are left in an absurd or even ridiculous position..
In other images appear only the carriers and captions. Erasing certain parts
of the images means to give a representation of the Ivorians in a situation
which is no longer of servility. Nevertheless, on those images, the bodies of
the native Ivorians appear as being marked by this period.. The gestures of
carrying stay in suspense while the raised arms are transformed into a surge
of resistance. Are they precursors of hope towards the desire of an Africa that
will walk on a path that it has chosen itself?

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