This installation aims to reflect on the space that is left in the current french society for the descendents of enslaved people.
Mixing documentary and fiction, the artist, a french white female, started to work from18th century paintings depicting the families of ship owners and industrialists that grew wealthy through slave trade and slavery. These portraits are currently in numerous museums in France.
Considering that the wealth appearing on them was stolen, #Elisa_Moris_Vai asked young enslaved people’s descendents thanks to a classified ad to pose in the style of the paintings. Creating in this way fictional pictures, the work questions the legitimacy of that wealth. That part blends with contemporary video pieces in which the same people stare at the spectator, giving a personal statement.
Ruddy, Maëla, Lorenza, Lydie, Léa, Jérôme, Claude, Dimitri, Leïla and Christelle come from Guadeloupe, the Reunion island, French Guiana, Martinique, Haiti and Dominica. They are photographer, student, director, consultant, project manager, musician, management accountant, actresses. They are young, commited, talented. They are France.
▻https://elisamorisvai.com/work/recit-national-national-narrative
#contre-récit #nationalisme #art #art_et_politique #afro-descendants #photographie #portraits #peinture #fictionnalisation #esclavage #histoire #historicisation #identité #identité_nationale #Noirs #couleur_de_peau #tableau
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