from november 3 to december 30, 2023

PORTES INSULAIRES

at the Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation

from december 8 to december 30, 2023
18 rue de la Calade — Arles

Soum Eveline BONKOUNGOU      Soum Eveline Bonkoungou was born in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in  1992. She starts out by assisting event photographers for 2 years, then meets Burkinabe photographer Adrien Bitibaly, who introduces her to auteur photography.
In 2021, she takes part in the mentoring program at Photosa, Ouagadougou’s biennial photographyfestival. The same year, she joins CERPHOB (Cercle des Photographes du Burkina) and becomes a member of the festival’s organizing committee. In 2023, she exhibits her project Zirk at the second edition of Photosa. She carries out a creative residency at the Leschangeurs cultural center in Agbodrafo, Togo. In collaboration with the Bauhaus Universität Weimar, Germany, she creates theproject M’YINGA, mon corps, exhibited in late 2022 and early 2023.
In June 2023, Eveline begins a residency at the Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation, where she works with Florent Basiletti on her artistic projects. She is also responsible  for coordinating artists during the Les Rencontres d’Arles festival. During the Fotohaus Berlin 2023 program, Eveline  projects her Peogo series, and organizes a meeting- projection around her work Zirk at Scharaun, Berlin. Sheexhibits Zirk and Peogo in Arles, in December 2023, at the Fondation MRO.
In January and February 2024, Eveline exhibits her Zirk series at the Goethe Institut in Ouagadougou, and in April 2024 her Peogo series at the Emoi photographique festival in Angoulême.

Zirk is a form of Islamic meditation in which phrases or prayers are chanted repeatedly. In Sufi Islam, Zirk refers to both the act of remembering and the prayers used in these acts of recollection. Coming from a Muslim family, this is the religion of my childhood. My parents were the ones who decided what I should believe and what path I should follow in my religious practice. All these questions arose from the realization that I didn’t feel in tune with my own convictions, and that I didn’t feel a divine connection in my relationship with Islam. “For me, faith is personal” she said.

Peogo is a traditional basket offered at weddings in Burkina Faso (the bride’s basket or Pougpal Péogo in Mooré). These dishes are the pride of some couples and are often used for important occasions or as trophies by families. However, thispractice is less and less common, as young Burkinabé couples find these dishes cumbersome. This work is accompanied by recorded testimonials and stories about this tradition, which has been handed down from generation to generation. It reveals the objects that make up the Peogo, such as the calabash, the sieve and the spatula, generally kitchen utensils described as indispensable to the young wife when she joins her husband’s court.

partners : Embassy of France in Burkina Faso, Goethe-Institut Ouagadougou, Photosa - biennale photographique du Burkina Faso, Atelier SHL, La Kabine

from november 3 to december 30 2023
18 rue de la Calade — Arles

Portes insulaires       The Portes insulaires exhibition program is an invitation to unknown, shifting territories; an exploration of tributaries, through sediments, to meet their inhabitants. Deceptively wild worlds, marked by a strong sense of belonging, with the ambition of ultimate control mixed with a striking powerlessness

We set off to discover the Danube delta, the second- largest delta in Europe after the Volga, with a surface area of 3,446 km2; a protected natural region that has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1991. Camilla de Maffei captures this territory through the four seasons, meeting its inhabitants and discovering the source of the river, which rises in Germany, in the Black Forest mountains, and ends in the Black Sea. This delta is Europe’s largest wetland area, five times the size of the Camargue, with only 13% of the total surface area on dry land.


Mathias Benguigui takes a look at the Rhône delta, the Camargue delta. A land of myths, fantasies and legends. An oasis of biodiversity under socio-political pressure and an unprecedented environmental crisis. A land of contradiction, with a sense of isolation and ileity, but also boosted by tourism through its wild and idyllic image.

In the Mediterranean and Provence, water control is very important, shaping the economy and its livability. A sense of direction (Le sens de l’orientation) allows us to map territories and better understand them. Elizabeth Guyon creates this cartography by walking to the rhythm of the water along the Canal de Craponne. This Renaissance canal irrigates and fertilizes a large part of the Crau, the arid steppe left by the paleo delta of the Durance. Elizabeth creates encounters with a perspective of sharing, capturing the echo between water and dialogue.