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ALLIANCE Française de Durban is playing host to the art video exhibition The Poetry of Bodies/Poésie des corps, which can be seen at the KZNSA Gallery in Bulwer Road, Glenwood, until June 16.
Curated by Delphine Colin, the exhibition showcases the work of 14 artists from France and Francophone countries like Switzerland, Reunion Island and Lebanon.
They have developed their own filmic language and manipulate digital images to create a new reality.
The first part of the exhibition, entitled Women, concentrates on the portraits of women, in which the female or male artists approaches the woman’s dimensions: her physical appearance, her intimacy, her memory, her psychology.
This passage is further explored from one emotional state to another; from reality to a dream state or nightmare. Ultimately, a new and more complicated vision of the woman is created.
The second section, Society, deals with society: men, women, children, and people in the street. The videos represent the process of construction and deconstruction of an identity and an environment. As individuals disappear into the collective of a public space, human attitudes are questioned through poetry, humour or critique.
Two installations complete the exhibition: the sculpture-performance CLOCS (Anaïs Lelièvre) realised in three different places in Paris, and projected in three screens, including Laurent Fiévet’s installation.
There will be a walkabout of the exhibition at 10.30 am on Friday, June 12.
• Alliance Française de Durban is also hosting a screening of the documentary Tana Delta: a wetland in the balance by Khamis Ramadhan tomorrow.
The documentary features water management issues and solutions that KENWEB, a multi-disciplinary French and Kenyan research team recognises and proposes regarding the Tana Delta.
The film, which can be seen at 7 pm for 7.30 pm at the organisation’s headquarters at 22 Sutton Crescent (corner Lilian Ngoyi Road), Morningside, will be accompanied by a photographic exhibition consisting of 13 photographs taken by researchers in the field.
After the screening, there will be a Qandamp;A session, headed by Dr Stéphanie Duvail of the French Institute of Research for Development.
The event, which forms part of this year’s COP 21 proceedings in Paris, France, aims to generate public awareness about the Tana Delta, a little known wetland system of the Kenyan coast.
The area is often presented as desolate land to be converted into large scale irrigation systems in the very near future. In reality, the delta is a highly productive coastal wetland endowed with significant cultural and biological diversity.
It has been designated as an important bird area, and is a key habitat for two of the world’s rarest primates. Inquiries: 031 312 9582. — AE
