«Partir à l’aventure» au Sénégal signifie voyager par voies terrestre ou maritime dans l’espoir d’atteindre les frontières européennes. Le voyage devient alors une aventure risquée où les migrants en viennent à s’interroger sur leur destinée. «Barça mba barzakh ?» «Barcelone ou la mort ?» est le cri de ralliement lancé par les Sénégalais qui tentent de rejoindre l’Espagne.
Collections du Musée de l'Histoire de l'Immigration, Paris.
This project was conceived following interviews conducted in Mali and in Senegal between 2008 and 2009, during which I pose two questions to my interlocutors: “Who are you?” and “What do you dream of?”
Amongst the most frequently mentioned aspirations is the desire to reach Europe. I therefore decide to meet with these men who are ready to set off by canoe, leaving behind their homeland, even if they must risk their lives in order to realise their dream.
“Leaving in search of adventure” entails traversing land and sea in the hope of reaching the European frontier. The voyage thus morphs into a hazardous adventure, where the migrants begin to question their previous convictions about their destiny. “Barça mba barzakh?” (“Barcelona or death?”) is the rallying cry bellowed by those Senegalese trying to reach Spain. Two booklets detail, on the one hand, the interview effected with Pape El Hadji Maguette, who attempted to break through in 2006, and on the other, the photographs of objects once belonging to these migrants, strewn across the beach by the backwash of the sea. The projection of these photographs and fragments of testimony complement the montage.
