Re-connaître.(Remembering so as not to forget) 

Slavery, at least in its large-scale industrial form within the framework of a colonial project, is generally considered today as something from another time, a deplorable chapter of history from the past.

With Re-connaître, Christiane Jatahy seeks to connect it to the present, zooming in on its enormous impact on the world we live in today and its geopolitical realities, on the structural racism present in so many of our societies, and on the personal stories of millions of people across this planet, in so many countries and cities, whose lives are still affected by the history of slavery.

During the year of 2021 Christiane Jatahy was invited as associate artist at MUCEM in Marseille. Created in this context, Re-connaître sent out an open call to descendants of the history of slavery. A selected and very diverse – in terms of age, gender, and background – group of people testified about their relationship with the past, about how the past has shaped their present, how genealogical lines were ruptured and re-imagined, about projecting a future.

The participants were interviewed in front of a live audience. Their testimonies were added to a video installation, joining the growing library of stories, turning the installation space of Re-connaître into a live archive connecting the very personal and intimate to history, and giving this history a radically contemporary dimension.

Credits

Created and directed by Christiane Jatahy

Artistic collaboration Thomas Walgrave

Space design Marcelo Lipiani

Collaboration photography Paulo Camacho

Video system Julio Parente 

Sound Francesca Berselli

Production manager Henrique Mariano