Nuits Balnéaires

Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson

In recent years, Nuits Balnéaires has developed a hybrid practice. The Ivorian artist works at the crossroads of fine art, fashion and research. Their influences blend cinema, literature, theatre, performance and cultural history. Their life is at once rooted in the small coastal town of Grand-Bassam, east of Abidjan, and open to multiple international cultural communities. Eboro was produced as part of the Latitudes program of the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, of which Nuits Balnéaires is the second laureate. This project introduces a more autobiographical dimension to Nuits Balnéaires' work. The project begins in Dakar, Senegal: on July 22, 1986, their uncle Noël X. Ebony, a renowned journalist and playwright, disappeared under enigmatic circumstances. "There is an inexplicable bond between us, perhaps stemming from a transgenerational memory," confides Nuits Balnéaires. In the Agni-Bona tradition of Côte d’Ivoire, in which the artist is deeply immersed, the nephew plays a key role in accompanying the uncle on his passage to the afterlife. For Nuits Balnéaires, this took the form of an exploration of how earlier trajectories – historical or familial – influence or predetermine our own life paths. Nuits Balnéaires conceived Eboro intuitively, allowing the emotional power of places and family memory to shape the interconnected visual chapters of this multi-layered work. They embrace the melancholy and trauma linked to their uncle's story with gentleness and hope, questioning how imagination can contribute to healing transgenerational wounds.

Source: Paris Open Data ↗