After Viyé Diba, Ibrahima Thiam and the ongoing Henri Sagna Residency, the TALKING OBJECTS LAB continues its artist residencies at the Musée Théodore Monod with artists Élise Fitte-Duval.

Élise Fitte-Duval's statement about her residency:

 «I make objects speak in relation to history, such as that of the kingdom of Manding, to link it to our decolonial contemporaneity. I chose this kingdom somewhat arbitrarily, because it represents the geographical area in which I currently reside. But also because it is told through the exceptional myth of Sogolon, the mother of the hero Soundjata who founded the kingdom. She plays a preponderant role in his quest for social justice which, for me, prefigures current female social struggles. Exceptional because, according to A. Mukenge1, in African epic stories, women play a passive role. Their story is made of dotted lines in the general gesture. How can we connect the dots with everyday objects or even symbolic objects? In a previous exercise, I had practiced imagining clues to the story that would have remained latent in the space and in the bodies. I could proceed in the same way with the objects that offer a simple reference point, in that they are a product of the human being, to let the imagination take over. With the objects supposedly used at that time or in that type of realm, imagine human trajectories through a history that is itself partly fictional, to give substance to the myth. By doing this immersion, I try to show how our past is still inscribed in our present and necessarily affects it by leaving room for the imaginary, poetry, melancholy. I will look for objects in the collection of Musée Théodore Monod that could be related to the daily life of a woman, of that time to create my own myth.

Find out more about Élise Fitte-Duval under PEOPLE.