hey you happy people here and there! as time is running fast we need to make up our minds how exactly we want to do our project. to work out a plan i would like to invite everyone of us to give his and her own idea of how we could do it, so we know what we want to discuss about. ill try to bring it to a point quick:
heimat, a word that only exists in german, rather a concept than a place - what is it, what does it mean to you? this is what we want to find out.
in france there is the expression la mère partrie - it doesnt only express what your home country can mean to you - its a concise person, a savior, provider, guide, a collective mother.
being home kann mean - feel that you belong, loved, respected, secure, just like with a mother.
in almost every culture group, especially the ones a mayority of the french immigrants belongs to, the mother is untouchable, holy and like heimat for many she is intrinsically tied to their own identity.
the stranger you feel at a place, the stronger is your need for a place you belong to.the further aways this place is, the more fage is the idea of it, people tend to glorify their far away heimat.
many kids of immigrants, first or second generation claim their parents birthplace as their heimat, although many of them have never been there. oftentimes this place has changed and only exists in the memory and fantasy of the ones that left it a long time ago. children of immigrants oftentimes dont feel home in their birthcountry because they are not treated as equal citizens allthough they have - from birth the same rights and duties as all citizens. the term : "ausländer", alien or foreigner is simply wrong for people who have been born and raised in the country they live in. calling this group ausländer means judging by blood and not national right. may immigrants in second generation feel too that their blood is much more important then their nationality. how can you feel home if you are told you are a stranger.
to find out what heimat means to them, we want to interview women of all couleur, ethnicity and age, make a soundcollage of this and place it all over paris.
for the photos i imagine us looking for women of all couleur and ethnicity that have a strong charisma and very intresting personality and are unmistakably recognisable as mothers - this will be part of our inscenation too. i like the idea to inscenate them very proud and very individuel. strong women, funny, strict, how every they are. the fotos could be taken in their homes, where they are secure and we are outsiders. they would either wear the head of marianne - without looking stupid, rather like on an old painting or a coin - or any other typical symbol of the french state to make visible that in a way -they all are france. the portrait would show their face and upper chest and few of the backround. they would sit or stand how and where they want and they could choose which french symbol they want and what to do with it. i think the pictures need to be very strong and should be taken with a lot of humour, a bit bold, and with a certain edge - not to clean and pretty. otherwise we might be mistaken for moralist. i guess we could avoid that by making a clear concept, by maybe overinscenating and by letting the women paly with their role. we should look at my portrait series to find out what look we want to create. i downloaded some pix from the internet - they dont really fit, but maybe you get an idea of what i mean.
these portraits of maybe ten women would be printed as postcards and put into stands all over paris in combination with the sound collage. everyone can pick theyre mama and no mater how different they are, everyone is france in a way. in combination with the sound collage about heimat, people can draw their own conclusion from the project.
i hope i can upload some pix - it would be great if we could find a consense till tuesday, so we can start organizing.
wow, this was long!
hope to hear from you soon!
love Alex
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