Premiere screening of Xarassi Xanne (Work in Progress) by Raphaël Grisey and Bouba Touré, and exhibition of Sowing Somankidi Coura, a Generative Archive, with works by Raphaël Grisey, Bouba Touré and Káddu Yaraax, Art Center Nona, 9th Contour Biennale, Mechelen
19.10.2019 13:00
Filmpremière + Q&A | Crossing Voices – Xaraasi Xanne (work in progress) | Raphaël Grisey & Bouba Touré
Discussion with Omar Ba and Nataša Petresin
For the Contour Biennale, Bouba Touré and Raphaël Grisey will present the first rough cut of the film ‘Crossing Voices – Xaraasi Xanne’. Through rare cinematographic, photographic and sound archives, it tells the story of the exemplary adventure of Somankidi Coura. This is an agricultural cooperative founded in Mali in 1977 by West African migrant workers living in France, in the migrant worker housing spaces called foyers.
The history of the improbable utopia of a return to the homeland follows a tortuous path that reveals ecological issues and struggles on the African continent from the 1970s to this day. To tell this story, Bouba Touré, one of its principal actors, returns to the heart of his personal archives. They document peasant struggles in France and Mali as well as following the personal stories of migrant workers over many decades. Furthermore, the film is a story of transmission, kinship and cinematographic geographies. It is the story of Bouba Touré with filmmaker Raphaël Grisey, who became Bouba’s spiritual son, but it also chronicles Bouba’s relationship with militant filmmakers such as Sidney Sokhona, Safi Faye or Med Hondo. Throughout the film, voices come to accompany Bouba and bring forth the narrative of a forgotten memory leading towards the future.
