Nomadie

This initiative grew out of a longstanding relationship with a group of women and previous workshops combining words and photography. In 2009 their project to set up a catering association fell through and the collective was left rudderless. We decided to search for the cause by investigating issues related to women in society and the workplace, who maintain a tenuous balance between the intimate setting of the home and the desire to take part in life in their city, including from an economic standpoint. 

We will document the entire experience using various the various media at our disposal: drawings, photos, sound recordings and writing.

Over the course of a year, we plan to initiate various events: speaking workshops on experiences in the workplace with a psychiatrist, Bernard Doray (CEDRATE http://cedrate.org); a trip to Algeria to meet young women beekeepers at Afak (http://www.humanite.fr/node/429632); fruit-picking and jam-making days at Cocagne gardens in Besançon (http://www.julienne-javel.org/cocagne.php); and workshops on songs of work and migration with Josephine Lazzarino (http://www.lecourrierdelatlas.com/Societe/On-a-l-age-de-son-choeur.html).

The results of the project will be presented in an exhibition at Cosmopolis (http://www.nantes.fr/home/ville-de-nantes/culture/les-lieux-culturels/cosmopolis-lespace-international.html), during which each of the activities in the initiative will be highlighted, including a talk on the solidarity economy led by ECOSSOLIES (http://www.ecossolies.fr) and a conversation with the Afak beekeepers in Algeria via Skype. 

A travelling version of the exhibition will be shown at Blanc-Mesnil multimedia library in March 2011.

We believe that the social value of the experience is twofold. It provides a language (graphic design, photography and sound design) that crystallise perspectives that would have otherwise remained unvoiced. It also enables participants to take part in experiences outside their area of expertise. Everyone does their part to enhance the project and ensure that it is a success: the graphic designer and photographer become logistics specialists, the cooks become leaders, the speakers become the audience, etc.