"ROAD"

 

Let us not forget our past and look to the future with hope...

 

La Maison des Esclaves is a tangible reminder of our history. The door of no return moves, stirs, shakes, and upsets us. The slaves who pass through it are gone forever. Even if they tried to escape, their 13kg ball and chain would inevitably condemn them to drowning.

 

Slavery dates back well beyond the slave trade, even to the Neolithic period.

 

Today, in 2022, enslavement remains, persists, stubbornly. An unofficial slavery. Slavery 2.0. Modern slavery? Individuals reduced to slavery against their will. Passports confiscated. Under the thumb of their “employers” in a foreign country. When they return to their own country, it is often in a dire state or dead. Not to mention child trafficking. One question would be, is it enough to be abroad to be at risk of becoming a modern-day slave, or does it also happen in the country of which one is a national?

 

The work "Road" is made of stainless steel, a material that requires a lot of work and patience. This installation points toward the sky, but the path is fraught with obstacles, lines intertwine, intersect, cross, merge... Could this be the journey, the path of a lifetime? I imagine it is difficult to truly, precisely, and accurately understand what slaves in ancient times went through and what those in contemporary times are going through without having experienced it oneself. This work is a representation of the difficulties, hardships, obstacles, insults, and injustices of their trials. Could hope be responsible for their resilience? The transparent yellow and blue represent this hope, the colors of the sky and the sun. This work is a tribute to all those people under the absolute power of the master.