Crossings
Others’ shores
Ecchymosis no data
Last day
no hope
9,8 km
From one essence to another
Muted
The Silent Sky
about
68th edition of Salon de Montrouge
7–23 February 2025
Curated by Chris Cyrille and Andrea Ponsini
Collection of the FRAC Île-de-France
Using plastic tarpaulins that can evoke a sense of confinement, Lê Hoàng Nguyên materializes a container, the object of transit par excellence used for the transport of goods. The enclosed space is partially covered with streaks of earth, dust, and sea salt collected in Calais, within the former migrant camp known as "Vietnam City." These various elements function as clues to the tragedy the artist references. In 2019, 39 Vietnamese people, several of whom had passed through France on their way to Britain, were found dead of asphyxiation and hyperthermia in a refrigerated container.
At the center of the installation, watch straps hang from butcher's hooks. The presence of the hooks may echo the inhumane treatment endured during these crossings.
The trial into the case revealed that the victims had been referred to as "goods" or "chickens" by the smugglers. The watches, stripped of their dials, express the waiting, the frozen time in which people in situations of irregular migration find themselves. They also evoke, with a certain restraint, the deaths of these individuals for whom time stopped altogether.
A video composed of testimonies recounting migratory journeys shows that the decision to leave is generally tied to survival, to the need to provide for one's family. Over the course of the documentary, the accounts reveal the international structure of smuggling networks, the crushing debts incurred, the conditions of passage and subsequent work, the constant insecurity of living without papers, but also the solidarity within the community. The embodied speech contrasts with the coldness of the space and seems to affirm the importance of transmission: second- and third-generation descendants of immigration share the stories of the first generation.
Through its various components, Lê Hoàng Nguyên‘s installation could be read as a form of memorial site, honoring those who died and recalling the harshness of migratory journeys.
Text written by Daisy Lambert