La nuit tombe sur l’Europe (Night falls on Europe), a photography exhibition and film by Samuel Bollendorff, is being presented under the canopy of Les Halles in Paris for a month with free access.
The conflicts affecting the planet caused twenty-one million refugees in 2015 to seek refuge. One million turned to Europe. In Syria, since the beginning of the war, more than 300,000 people have died. After having known the horrors of war, some risked everything to be safe with their children. But continuously throughout their journey of exile, the most vulnerable are easy prey, particularly for traffickers.
Supposed to welcome and protect, Europe is making itself a fortress, even if it means its disgrace. Facing this unprecedented crisis, the response of the European institution has remained out of proportion with the urgency and the need to protect – an obligation as legal as it is moral. Instead, since March 2016, economic and security arguments are establishing fragmented and inadequate responses, going so far as to organize forcible returns of refugees to Turkey, a so-called safe country that does not hesitate to send them back to their country of origin.
More than 5,000 people have perished at sea during their journey. Those who survived the crossing are, nevertheless, confronted with death, rape, forced prostitution, fear, police violence from country to country, racist attacks, and even the confiscation of their jewelry and riches in their request for asylum. One by one, European countries, instead of welcoming, are taking shifts to forsake the most fragile.
Samuel Bollendorff
Samuel Bollendorff, La nuit tombe sur l’Europe (Night falls on Europe)
April 15 through May 11, 2017
Canopée des Halles
Allée Jules Supervielle
75001 Paris
France
