Les Primes, 2022

Lecture Performance

Les Primes is a lecture performance commissioned by Villa Romana Florence for the Festival Manifestiamo of summer 2022 at Villa Romana.

The performance addresses French colonial efforts to boost the French fishing industry off the coast of Senegal and experiments with plants and crops that can be exploited.

Texts and archival images from the collection of the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, collaged into each other and highlighted and distorted by sculptural actions in the space of the performance, give a sense of the arrogance and rigor of the rule of profitability.

Fish silver, gained from fish scales, prominently features in the performance on all formal levels.

The artistic research for the performance happened in connection with the project Seeds for Future Memories, organised by Angelika Stepken / Villa Romana Florence in 2018.

Performers: Ludivine Gragy, Judith Raum