Through several new pieces as well as the award-winning film Koropa, "M'Tsamboro" multiplies the perspectives on this contrasting territory, both illusory and concrete, delivered in a poetic but never idealized realism.
Les filles du calvaire is pleased to announce the solo exhibition of Laura Henno, M'Tsamboro. After her exhibition at the last edition of the Rencontres d'Arles, she presents at the gallery all her work done in the Comoros.
In the wake of her projects in Reunion Island, Laura Henno began working in 2009 on the neighboring archipelago of Comoros, the regional epicenter of migration phenomena. While she had previously focused on the representation of young people involved in the phenomena of "marronnage", a term used to describe the escape of slaves, she now focuses on the landscape of migration and the lives of smugglers. The title of her new exhibition at the Galerie les filles du calvaire, "M'Tsamboro", refers to an uninhabited islet in the Comoros archipelago where unscrupulous smugglers disembark the migrants they deceive, hoping to have arrived in Mayotte on their side. This island trap becomes the place of the first disillusions for these Comorians in exile, forced to hide from the border police and its dogs. Through several new pieces as well as the award-winning film Koropa, "M'Tsamboro" multiplies the perspectives on this contrasting territory, both illusory and very real, delivered in a poetic realism, but never idealized. (excerpt from the text by Florian Gaité)