MEDI1TV Afrique : Art, cinéma et littérature c’est sur l’Afrique en culture - 09/11/2024
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00:00It is with great pleasure that I meet you again on Mediain TV for this new cultural stopover in the heart of Africa.
00:17In a few moments, we will discover together the very eclectic and mixed universe of Véa Gilles Gacha,
00:25which is increasingly making its name on the African and global artistic scene.
00:32We will also talk about cinema with the release of the documentary Coconut Head Generation,
00:38which is finally released in theaters, but first of all, let's welcome our guest of the day.
00:43And today, Diane, we have the immense pleasure of receiving a great artist constantly on the threshold.
00:56She dialogues through her art with the unconscious that she makes visible.
01:01Leila Bin Halimah is with us. Hello Leila.
01:04Hello Emna, thank you for welcoming me on Mediain TV.
01:10It is always a pleasure to welcome you Leila.
01:13And here is a very beautiful news with Hori Flam, an exhibition that has already opened its doors on November 7.
01:21So for the whole month of November, we will be able to admire your works in Tangier.
01:28And this very intriguing title, a bit like the language of birds, Hori Flam, Lam.
01:35What is the meaning of this title for you Leila?
01:40Well, Hori Flam is already a nod to Hori Flam, which are the flags that we had in time during the wars.
01:54We know the wars now, but it is the inner war that we can live, the war against personal events.
02:02And then it is a game of words between Hori Flam and Lam, because my work is very spiritual.
02:10It is an introspection and a discussion with my soul, with the souls of the ancestors.
02:18So here is Hori Flam Tangier, which began on November 7.
02:25And before Hori Flam Tangier, there was Hori Flam Dakar, which took place in October.
02:32And for me it will be, I hope, a beginning of several Hori Flam, which will mainly travel to Africa.
02:39It is a wish that is very dear to me.
02:42And here I was going to come for Hori Flam Dakar.
02:47What were your impressions? How did you experience this event?
02:52But also the public there today in Tangier.
02:57What is your feeling about this event, but also the event that has already passed?
03:07Well, the public was very encouraging.
03:12He had time to look at it, where the reflection was deep.
03:18I was accompanied by my exhibition commissioner, Leila Abelhaj, who is an art critic and art philosopher.
03:29And who helped me to present my work, to present a deep vision of this mythical approach that I have of the unconscious.
03:42The public was very receptive, very intrigued at first by a world where man meets the animal,
03:50where sweetness meets violence, where the dream is present, where color is also very strong,
03:58referring to our African origins and creating a bridge, a discussion between the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa.
04:12Leila, I would like to know a lot about the genesis of this exhibition, how the idea was born in you,
04:21and then this continuous work on the unconscious, its place in us,
04:27but also how to dialogue with it in a way that is precisely unconscious every day of our life.
04:34So how did you get the idea for this exhibition and how long did it take you?
04:43It's a very long work, since it started in 2020.
04:48And of course, like all artists, the inspiration comes from the path we have as people,
04:57and the events of the world, the difficult family situations, have shifted my vision of life in general, my vision of humanity.
05:11And I needed to practice my art as a therapy.
05:18So it's actually a therapy art.
05:21And every day I take the time to lay down my dreams, my hopes, my fears, my disappointments.
05:31And fortunately, because this work allows me to keep a resilient approach to events that are very painful to me,
05:42and also to make a positive film out of it, because it allows me to travel in this ancestrality that we all have.
05:51And I sometimes, and often I would even say, interpret my work once it's finished.
05:58Because I start it in a total freedom, and once the work is finished, it tells me a story,
06:06either of my past, or of my future, or of my present.
06:10It's quite special, really special.
06:14And I don't think I could have had this free approach if I didn't have an exhibition curator following me, like Leila Belhaj,
06:26and a great Senegalese painter, Mr. Zolombey, whom I salute and thank for always being present and kind in his reading of my works.
06:42And so we will be at the rendezvous to admire your paintings, this very beautiful exhibition, very promising.
06:52So, Auriflame in the heart of Tangier, it opens on November 7th, so you have the whole month of November to go and meet the unconscious of Leila Benhalima's universe.
07:02Thank you very much for being with us, it was a pleasure.
07:06Thank you Amna for your support to the artists and your listening and your constant encouragement.
07:12And thank you to Mediapédé for being there for us, for Africa.
07:16Thank you very much.
07:22And after talking about art, we will continue to talk about art with Béa-Gilles Gachat, a French-Cambrian artist.
07:32She entered the Louvre in 2011, but we must say that Béa-Gilles Gachat is above all an autodidact artist,
07:38who sees and thinks of her art as a commitment in an intersectional perspective.
07:44Moreover, she created two collectives, including Des Gosses in 2016, with the artists Racajo and Nilsignet,
07:51who question the lack of representation of young Afro-French artists with rather singular backgrounds.
07:58In any case, Gachat plays with artistic mediums.
08:02She associates, in particular, with plastic arts, including drawing and writing.
08:06And over time, her trademark will become the pearling of figurative sculptural surfaces.
08:14Let's listen to it right away.
08:18It's a very long work, which inspired me to work on Bamileke artisanal pearling, from the Cameroonian Oasis.
08:26It was a process of revaluing what is human.
08:33When you look at the sculptures, you get the impression of seeing jewels.
08:39I always found that, unfortunately, we evolve in a society where we give more value to objects than to human beings,
08:50and that's why I started doing this work.
08:53During this residence in Saint-Laurent-du-Maronnet, I developed an artistic project,
08:57which is more of a visual plastic and poetic research on how to integrate and use natural materials.
09:08In general, I develop a corpus of works, where I can touch on many different mediums,
09:14which tell a story, as is the case in the exhibition that is currently taking place at the Transportation Camp.
09:22Béa-Gilles Gachat has made African culture a real inspiration.
09:27The inspiration, apart from Antiane, is based on the ancestral practice found in the West Cameroonian prairies.
09:34This practice involves enveloping sculpted figures and domestic objects with glass pearls.
09:39These pearls, sometimes from the Czech Republic,
09:43evoke both Bamileke's heritage and the long-standing trade of pearls,
09:48which unites Africa with Europe, without forgetting Asia.
09:51For the artist, the pearl is above all a kind of metaphor,
09:55which highlights human ties in order to draw attention to the individual value of each human being and their personal experience.
10:08It's a big part of my artistic project,
10:11as well as my research on elements in nature, in the forest.
10:19There is, of course, an interest in the cultural and natural wealth of Guiana and Saint-Laurent.
10:29This residence has been very interesting for me.
10:34When I start a project, I come up with a global idea.
10:39New ideas for Guiana.
10:41We can be sure that there are a bit too many ideas in my head right now.
10:46It's so rich, with so many different areas of research and creative paths.
10:56Since her first exhibition in Stockholm in 2009,
11:00Béa-Gilles Gachat has been exploring the world of real figures,
11:04from the African artistic scene of the Washington Museum to the Grand Palais in Paris,
11:10without forgetting the artistic space, the center of L'Obsambuka in Benin,
11:15or the National Gallery in Rome.
11:17Her unique creations raise questions.
11:20If Béa-Gilles Gachat's artistic footprint is based on pearls,
11:24the impact of the artist on the world of art does not end there.
11:28Each of her works aims to deliver a message,
11:34to raise awareness and to awaken minds,
11:38always with so much poetry.
11:40I just thought, I'm going to talk about human beings.
11:43For me, they are human beings that we should see as a value before the object.
11:49I chose an olive tree,
11:51all its symbolism, the tree of peace, wisdom,
11:54but also because it is a Mediterranean tree
11:56that leads to all this reflection on what brings us together and not what divides us.
12:00This little boy has a defiant look,
12:02he challenges the adult and faces his responsibilities.
12:11And right away in African culture, we talk about cinema,
12:14with Coconuts Head Generation,
12:16the French-Congolese director Alain Kassandar,
12:19who won the Grand Prix of the prestigious Cinema du Réel Festival at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
12:25His documentary tells us how in Cineclub, at the Nigerian University of Ibadan,
12:30it turns into a place of nourishing gatherings,
12:33the dreams of freedom of students in the street.
12:36The title comes from a Nigerian expression
12:38that refers to someone who has a hollow head and who is born.
12:41A nod to this generation of young Nigerians
12:44who appropriated this expression to claim their stubborn side,
12:50which they put at the service of others and society,
12:53for a better future.
12:55Coconuts Head Generation is released on Wednesday, October 23 at the Cinema.
13:00Let's watch the trailer together.
13:21We're going to open now.
13:35Okay, so welcome everybody once again to TFS.
13:39TFS stands for Thursday Film Series.
13:41We screen films here, the same venue, every Thursday.
13:45It's a movie club where you come, see a film,
13:48talk about it and it's an opportunity to learn,
13:51expand your horizon and learn some certain things too.
13:55Let's go.
14:17Coconuts Head Generation.
14:19We are in a film club at the University of Ibadan,
14:23the oldest film club in Nigeria.
14:25The director, Alain Kassanda, shows how this cinema room
14:29is gradually transforming into a place of gathering and discussion
14:34between young people who want freedom and a better society.
14:38The film shows the strength of cinema.
14:40Here we are in a film club.
14:42Students can see films that talk about what it does to them
14:46as spectators but also as citizens.
14:50In Alain Kassanda's case, it's the citizen aspect
14:54that is the main focus of the film
14:56and shows the realities of Nigeria,
14:59the most populous country in the African continent
15:02and the first economic power on the continent.
15:05The film also allows young people to speak,
15:08real protagonists of Coconuts Head Generation.
15:11There is no outside voice to speak of.
15:14It's them who speak and express themselves.
15:17There is a kind of reappropriation of narration.
15:20Here we talk about how we can build together a new society.
15:25In any case, according to Alain Kassanda,
15:27this film is a co-construction between him as a filmmaker
15:32and Toby, the protagonist but also the filmmaker,
15:35whose images feed the film.
15:37What is important in his approach
15:39is that there is a kind of notion of equality between the filmer and the filmer.
15:43Coconuts Head Generation, by Alain Kassanda,
15:46was recently released in theaters on October 23rd,
15:49to be precise, and had an emergency.
15:57Before leaving us in African culture,
15:59it's impossible to miss literature.
16:02In particular, La Liberté is a faraway island,
16:06which is a story about the quest of a Caribbean mother
16:09to find her children scattered during slavery.
16:13For Rachelle, the heroine of the novel,
16:15the proclamation of 1834 of the emancipation of slaves
16:19in the British colonies is the beginning of a long journey
16:22that will lead her through the sugar cane fields of Barbados
16:26to the forests of British Guiana,
16:28through the sugar plantations of Trinidad.
16:32La Liberté est une île lointaine
16:34is the first novel by Eleonore Scherer,
16:37epic and poignant.
16:38The young Briton is reborn with her Métis origins
16:42in the 1950s.
16:44Her maternal grandparents left the Caribbean
16:47to settle in the United Kingdom.
16:49He was part of what historians call
16:51the Windrush Generation,
16:54according to the name of the backbone
16:56in which this first group of Caribbean immigrants
16:59traveled to work in England.
17:02It is one of the largest movements of population
17:05that the United Kingdom has known
17:07since the end of the Second World War.
17:09She grew up cherishing her Caribbean heritage.
17:12At 16, she went to see with her mother
17:14an exhibition on the abolition of slavery
17:16on the Caribbean islands.
17:18And it is by looking at this exhibition
17:20that she discovers that in the years
17:22that followed the end of slavery,
17:24several women set out in search of their children,
17:27sold back by their masters.
17:29She will say, I quote this story,
17:31and remained engraved in me for a long time
17:33as a symbol of resistance to slavery.
17:35So La Liberté est une île lointaine,
17:37un livre à lire d'urgence.
17:39On arrive à la fin de l'Afrique en culture.
17:41Merci d'avoir été avec nous
17:43et on se donne rendez-vous dès la semaine prochaine,
17:45sans faute.
17:46D'ici là, portez-vous bien.