Nicolas Pirus
Les champs de la colonisation - Film - 23min - 2024
présenté dans le cadre de l'exposition Panorama 26
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Baron Roger built a castle in Senegal and laid out the fields of an experimental farm around it. The folly of a dream of conquest and domination was intertwined with a conception of agriculture as a strategy of occupation. Over time, the farm became a fort. It housed governors, botanists and, through them, the various systems of power and domination put in place to colonise Senegal. We follow the wars and conflicts between the colonists, the Braks and the Linguères of Waalo, the battle between Governor Faidherbe and Ndaté Yalla’s army and the war that marked the beginning of the colonisation of Senegal. In the wake of this battle and the conquest of Waalo, the folly regained its function as a farm and the project of agricultural occupation of the land attempted to resume its course, although the plants, the Waalos and the soil all continued to resist the occupation.
Nicolas Pirus
Nicolas Pirus is a French artist born in 1993. He graduated from the Beaux-Arts de Bourges in 2018 and from the Ensba Lyon post-graduate art program in 2022, he lives and works in Saint-Étienne. His practice interweaves experimental cinema, 3D animation, and installation. Through his works, he explores the relationships between memory, land, and domination. His work has been presented at the CIAP in Vassivière, the CAC Le Creux de l’Enfer (Thiers), the Frac Lorraine (Metz), the CDN La Comédie de Caen, La Serre (Saint-Étienne), the Réfectoire des Nonnes (Lyon), and the Beursschouwburg (Brussels).
