In France, Présence(s) Photographie festival ended earlier this month. One of three installations forming an outdoor exhibition, dedicated to the Moroccan photographer Yoriyas Yassine Alaoui, was literally destroyed. The exhibition was held on the banks of the Rhone and was accessible to all.
Yoriyas Yassine Alaoui’s exhibition, Casablanca not in the movie, showed “the atmosphere and life of the city where I grew up, with simplicity, without political or racial provocation. Actions against my exhibition in Meysse are hard, for me but also for the people who’s taken part in making this exhibition exists. When we bothconsider the importance of the work done by the municipal teams and Presence (s) photography (prints, montages, installation, promotion, home …), and also the beautiful meetings made on this place, we can feel hurt to be deprived of cultural exchange, by a small number of individuals … this in the country symbol of freedom.”
On one of the photographs taken on the spot, after the degradations, one can see one of the screened works of impact of buckshot (munition composed of several projectiles). The festival has filed a lawsuit against X and is currently considering an artistic response.
