L'Arrière-pays

For the poet Yves Bonnefoy, “l’arrière-pays” is a phrase with a dual meaning – both spatial and temporal. It suggests taking a step back from a present that is being questioned. This search for another place is neither wise nor reasonable. It is driven as much by dissatisfaction as by hope, desire, pride, and fervor. This exhibition brings together artists from war-torn or geopolitically unstable regions to present, through photography and video, narratives at the crossroads of memory and transmission, exile and borders, documentary and fiction. In resonance with the guest language, these artists gather archives and testimonies, striving to give voice to those who have been silenced, in a quest for that arrière-pays where it is once again possible to say I. 

يجمع معرض L’Arrière-pays عبر القصص المرئية بالصورة والفيديو، فنانين عرب، آتين من أقاليم مضطربة على الصعيد الجغرافي والسياسي، ويسائل الذاكرة والرسالة، والمنفى والحدود. 

Artists Marwa Arsanios, Taysir Batniji, Safia Benhaim, Sirine Fattouh, Ghassan Halwani, Elika Hedayat, Bouchra Khalili, Lamine Ammar Khodja, Randa Maddah, Randa Maroufi, Medhi Meddaci, Dania Reymond, Larissa Sansour

Curated by Pascale Cassagnau

Coproduction Centre national des arts plastiques (Cnap), Mairie d’Avignon, Festival d’Avignon