Garde l'Est
single channel video, color, sound, 7'00", 2006
---------------------------------------------------------------
Afghan immigrants passing through Paris exploit tall trees beside the train
station to store personal belongings. In the [Post-it City] video Garde l’Est, Francisca Benítez films each tree by the station, slowly panning up from the ground to the trunk to reveal knapsacks, mattresses, and clothes tied to the upper branches. The tree trunks poignantly connect two parallel realities, French society and the ‘floating’ illegal immigrant community. Living in the city, yet apart from it, their belongings hanging from the trees embody this community’s suspended situation.
-Alexander McSpadden
Instant Cities, DAM #16, Brussels, April/May 2008
---------------------------------------------------------------
Garde l'Est
Past exhibitions
Les Frontières Invisibles / Post-it City, Tri Postal, Lille, France
Legal Aliens at Smack Mellon
Legal Aliens at Spaces, Cleveland, OH, US
---------------------------------------------------------------
* follow up 2009: an article about this issue in Libération
---------------------------------------------------------------
/
