Dakar. Since the middle of the 1990s, a group of artists led by Jean-Michel Bruyère has been patiently working to bring out the effects of artistic force found within poverty. In opposition to the moralist and compassionate trends, what is important for LFK-la fabriks is to show the aesthetic capacity, the creative force that is hidden in the deepest depths of misery. The street children of Dakar live in or pass through Man-Keneen-Ki (“me-the other” in Wolof), a home-cum-art school where every day they make multi-form works of a unique artistic act – poverty showing its own aesthetic side. From Dakar to Amsterdam, from Lisbonne to Buenos Aires, from Paris to Rome, these creative works trickle in little by little, to contemporary art centres or events, where, each time, they question the ambient certitude and tranquillity, and rekindle debates about ideas. The exhibition-performance, Enfants de la Nuit, created for the Festival includes the work of eighteen young artists aged from nine to twenty-five, all of whom come from the Man-Keneen-Ki School and LFK-la fabriks. The audience moves around in darkness. The spectator lights his own path with an electric torch, he goes towards the discovery of the works and their authors. Photography, video, theatre, dance, painting, literature, poetry... What we see is the result of lengthy underground work by its own protagonists which brings out the positive in a part of the world that is looked down upon. It's not a manifesto, it' s not a plea. It is an artistic act from a place where we most likely thought there was nothing.
Distribution
stage direction Jean Michel Bruyère
with Man-Keneen-Ki/Dakar artists :
Aplha Baldé, Pape Camara, Abdoulaye Dème, Djibril Dieng,
Mamadou Diallo, Mamadou Diop, Mourtalla Diop, Mansour Guindo,
Ibé Konaté, Cheikh Mbaye, Omar Ndiaye, Modou Ndiongue, Mamadou
Lamine Sakho, Assane Sène, Chérif Soumaré, Momar Sow, Babacar Sy,
Sada Tangara,
and Thierry Arredondo, Mamadou Goo Bâ, Issa Samb de LFK-la fabriks
Production
Production :LFK-la fabriks
Coproduction : CICV Pierre Schaeffer, Holland Festival, Festival d'Avignon, Festival Perspectives, epidemic production
Avec le soutien :de la Commission européenne-Office de Coopération Europaid, du ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, de la DRAC
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
et de l'Association française d'Action artistique
et son Programme Afrique en créations
Avec l'aide :de la Fondation BNP-Paribas, de Man-Keneen-Ki (Dakar),
de la Grande Halle de la Villette dans le cadre de ses résidences d'artistes
Attention : Spectacle déambulatoire, déconseillé aux personnes à mobilité réduite