The title of the artwork Sonjé means ‘to remember’ in Creole. It refers to the question asked by the artist: what will happen to the population, fauna and flora of the Caribbean in 700 years in the future ?
The artwork immerses the viewer in a partially submerged futuristic banana plantation that has undergone irreversible mutations and transformations. This world, inspired by the banana plantations in the French Caribbean, reflects the ecological disaster currently unfolding.
The artist denounces the long-term contamination of the soil and water of the French Antilles by the Chlordecone molecule. An insecticide used intensively between 1972 and 1993 to ‘save’ the banana industry in Martinique and Guadeloupe. One of the direct impacts of this contamination is the cancer incidence rate in these two islands, one of the highest in the world.
This creation was nourished by the current militant climate in Martinique, around the various trials and requests for compensation made to the Békés and the French State by unions defending the rights of agricultural workers. The scenario was made possible thanks to interviews with workers, and photographic surveys in banana fields. In order to be as faithful as possible to their testimonies.
Exhibitions :
Afterimages and perspectives of colonial enslavement, Nantes 2024