2023-07-02 14:13:22
La Croix: You grew up in Garges-lès-Gonesse. Having become an artist, you have never ceased to be interested in the fractures which divide society, in the relegation of the populations of the estates. From Berlin where you live today, how did you react to Nahel’s death and the riots that followed?
Kader Attia: I went to see the footage of the drama on social media. And I felt more than anger: incomprehension, a depressing feeling in the face of the violence of this death. It is not spectacular violence, and that is what is worrying. First there was an exchange with the police, then a shot was fired at close range. The police are theoretically the guarantor of the republican order. Self-confidence is essential to preserve social balance. If police officers behave like thugs by killing for a refusal to comply, then by writing false reports, the whole building is cracked.
If there had not been the images filmed by a witness, we would never have known the truth in this case, as for the death of George Floyd in the United States. All this gives the impression of living in a dystopian society, based on death and lies.
Now, the essential thing for me is that justice is done. To protect the Republic. This crime, committed in full view of all, must be punished by applying the law, as requested by Yassine Bouzrou, Nahel’s lawyer.
And the riots that followed, what do they inspire in you?
K.A. : The riots and the scenes of looting are the worst example that young people from the estates can give to the media. Seeing the destruction of libraries and schools in particular, for me, is dramatic. If I was able to become an artist, it was thanks to the Elsa-Triolet library in Garges-lès-Gonesse, where I was able to discover modern painters… in the trap of social networks, where everyone seeks in an egocentric way to access their little quarter of an hour of fame. The risk is that these acts of destruction and looting will only reinforce the very big divide that already exists in this country and that no one really wants to talk about. We also see the resurgence of ultra-authoritarian discourse.
Still, this outburst of anger is also indicative of a deep malaise in the face of state violence that has accumulated over the past four or five years…
What do you mean by “state violence”?
K.A. : First there was the confinement and the multiplication of sometimes absurd or contradictory health measures and controls, including via smartphones. In Paris, we had to close La Colonie, this great place for debate on living together, which we had created in 2016. While in Berlin we rode freely by bicycle, in France we could be fined if we went out to buy butter without having completed the regulatory paper…
French artist Kader Attia in front of one of his works, at the Miró Foundation in Barcelona, June 13, 2018. / MARTA PÉREZ/EFE/MAXPPP
The economic crisis followed, with a powerful inflation that strongly affected basic products such as pasta, flour, oil, sugar, in short, the food of the poor. With my parents, who were Algerian immigrants, that’s what we fed on. This growing divide between rich and poor creates humiliation.
Finally, there were the demonstrations against the pension reform, the deafening silence of power in the face of criticism of the text, and the denial of democracy in the Assembly with the repeated use of 49.3. This forced passage generated frustration in the population, felt, I believe, even by the youth of the estates. Not to mention the violence of the riot police that we saw clubbing adults, white French people, women, dragging them on the ground.
In your work as an artist, you are very attentive to “repair” processes. How to repair French society?
K.A. : By tackling the material, psychological and social misery that affects cities, by recreating social ties and by investing in education. Today, the attention of young people is captured by screens, social networks, and this strongly penalizes learning. We need to foster critical awareness. The governance of algorithms, like the whole capitalist system in reality, encourages terribly individualistic behavior in the population. While we should absolutely protect living together and the common good.
Why is capitalism so attractive? Why, at a time of environmental catastrophe, are we reduced to looting an Apple Store? I’m wondering. My next exhibition in France, at the MoCo in Montpellier in June 2024, will ironically be titled “Descent into Paradise”. Like this paradise that humans claim to have invented on earth and which strongly resembles hell.
#fracture #country #talk