and they go into the space that your gaze embraces: smoke signals

2016, video HD (37 min 10 s), loop

Production : Jeu de Paume; co-production : Spectre

Images arranged on a light table become visible when a hand passes over them, thanks to the light reflecting on the palm. Another hand removes the images in a slow movement that allows us to glimpse the images before they fade back away. The series combines images that show the different uses of space around the detention center, Centre de rétention administrative Paris 1 (CRA) over the last century (the forest, the 1931 Colonial Exhibition, the racecourse) with current photos of the building as well as sentences taken from the testimonies of the “detainees” present during the revolt that took place in this center on June 21 and 22, 2008, as collected in the book Feu au centre de rétention. Des sans-papiers témoignent (Paris: Libertalia, 2008).