« Reprendre » ?

The restitution of heritage objects is a burning question in a world that now sees Europe's colonial past differently and has questions about the provenance and exhibition of these objects in the West. Film director and African art expert Susan Vogel traces the tragically comic journey of a Fang statuette throughout the 20th century. In his film The Visitor (2007), the Swiss artist Uriel Orlow sets out to meet the King of Benin and ask him whether or not the famous bronzes now in the British Museum should be returned. Lastly, Senegalese videomaker Fatou Kandé Senghor films a ceramic artist, Seni Camara, who possesses a dying ancestral know-how. These different films question the transmission of confiscated objects, too often confined to museums alone.

Fatou Kandé Senghor, Giving Birth, 2015, vidéo, couleur, son, 30’. Courtesy de l’artiste et La Biennale di Venezia, avec le soutien de la Ford Foundation et de l’Institut français/Programme Afrique et Caraïbes en créations.

Uriel Orlow, The Visitor, 2007, vidéo, son, couleur, 15’58’’. Courtesy de l’artiste et la galerie mor charpentier.

Susan Vogel, Fang : An Epic Journey, 2001, vidéo, couleur, 8’. Courtsey de l’artiste et Icarus films.