Patrick Willocq,draws from his photographer’s imagination “with white skin but black soul” since his Congolese adolescence, the art of metamorphosing reality in poignant pictures displaying his deep humanist convictions.
In this village of Saint-Martory, in Haute-Garonne, where nine hundred and fifty inhabitants and, since the summer of 2016, fifty asylum-seekers live, far from the current commotion, it is our sweet France which is offering a prestigious, site-specific theater to better describe history in the making some miles away, on our Turkish, Greek, and Italian borders in the grip of humanitarian tragedies.
This exhibition is an exceptional invitation to “peasant weddings of solidarity”, painter Breughel would say. Sarah coming from Erythrée, Papy from France, Thoma from Chad, Elie from France, Bibiche from Saint-Martory, Adnan from Pakistan, and all the others in the sixty-four portraits exhibited passionately, participated in the creation of these photographs to bear witness to a France in quest of its historic heritage as a host country in dignity and respect.
There will be a before and an after following this piece at the Chateau de Saint-Martory to better transform us into informed and united citizens of the world. Because it is better to avoid “men constructing too many walls and not enough bridges” between us.
Alain Mingam
Alain Mingam is an author and curator specialized in photography.
Patrick Willocq, « Mon histoire, c’est l’histoire d’un espoir »
Exhibition from October 28 through November 5, 2017
Château de Saint-Martory
1 Place de la Poste
31360 Saint-Martory
France
