A message from Haiti

 I haven't mentioned it often here - it was in my previous life, pre-2009 - but in 2008 I travelled to Haiti. I was a freelance correspondent for different French media based in Miami, Florida, and Port-au-Prince is only 90 minutes away from the city by plane.

Moreover, a few years before then, I had worked with a unique filmmaker, Mr Raoul Peck, and Raoul is from Haiti. Indeed, I did arrive in Miami thanks to his advice, and covered the 2008 American election from a Floridian / hispanic / Caribbean angle.

Anyway, as most people know, Haiti has throughout its incredible history survived many disasters and turmoils. Hurricanes, dictatorship, torture, hunger, and in 2010 a devastating earthquake. But the island also suffers from another disaster, less expected: the mismanagement and political recuperation of the international aid.

Raoul Peck made his voice heard more than once on this issue and it's time to do it again.

If you want to help the Haitian people to recover from Hurricane Matthew, please wait and read this before your donate to any charity, to another U.N. agency. The UN and the aid system have harmed Haiti much more than necessary and it's time for its people to now decide for themselves how to choose what they need and what they want.

Here below is a message from Raoul. Please read and share.

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Sent by Raoul: 

A quelques kilometres de Port à Piment. (c: Damassin)

Dear family, friends and colleagues,

The situation on the ground in the Haiti's Southern peninsula is devastating. In its wake, hurricane Matthieu has left death and destruction that will affect the region for the unseen future. 

In the immediate short term survivors need our help.

I'm currently in Port au Prince and on my way to Port a Piment, my family's hometown, and received some distressing reports: destroyed homes, lack of clean drinking water and food, as well as adequate safe shelter.

In the long term, families will need seeds to replant their crops, tools and construction material to rebuild their homes.

We are looking into an immediate solution to get money in the hands of families so they can make their own decisions and help themselves by purchasing what they need locally from Haitian vendors and suppliers instead of flooding their town with “free” supplies from outside, which would drown their local economy even further.

For now and until the central government is able to develop its own plan, we need as citizen to do whatever we can to help. 

We would like to establish a fund from which the people of Port à Piment (and around) can profit.

These funds will be managed by a non-partisan, non-profit elected council adivising the city of Port a Piment: Le Conseil des Sages (The Council of the wise).

Their names and profession:

Phedo Lubin (Engineer)

Mme Gina Bonne Anney Regis (Teacher, Photographer)

M. Rody Charles (Minister)

M. Clarel Hyppolite (Teacher)

Mme Béranger Gentil (Businesswoman)

M. Dary Borgelas (Notary Public)

M. Aguillnaire (School Superintendent)

The council is helping the mayor and all other entities in their task and it maintains good relations with the different communities. They are best suited to determine how to triage the town’s emergency needs with local officials. They will also ensure appropriate financial management and accounting of the funds, as well as provide regular updates and progress.

 I would like to ask you to contribute with what you can. No amount is too small.

Thank you for your generosity.

Raoul Peck

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A plateform will be set up via Indiegogo soon.

Watch this space.

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More on the situation on the ground in Haiti: 

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/one-week-on-from-hurricane-matthew-the-death-toll-in-haiti-tops-1-000-1.2823743

One week on from Hurricane Matthew the death toll in Haiti tops 1,000

A cloak of havoc and ruin has descended across the country, most particularly in the south, which bore the brunt of the hurricane

Raoul Peck's column, in French, in Le Monde:

http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2016/10/08/haiti-apres-l-ouragan-matthew-je-vois-surtout-un-pays-affaibli-delaisse-ignore-estime-raoul-peck_5010509_3244.html

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More on Raoul Peck's film here: http://velvet-film.com

Raoul Peck (born 1953, Port-au-Prince, Haiti) is a Haitian filmmaker, of both documentary and feature films, and a political activist. Briefly, from March 1996 to September 1997, he was also Haiti's Minister of Culture.

He is notably known for Quelques jours en avril (HBO, 2005) shot in Rwanda about the genocide, Lumumba: La mort du prophète (1990) and Lumumba (2000), about DR Congo's independence.

He lives between Paris, Miami and Port-à-Piment and currently president the French school of cinema, la FEMIS.

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Raoul Peck’s complex body of work includes films “The Man by the Shore” (Competition Cannes 1993); “Lumumba” (Director’s Fortnight, Cannes 2000, also bought and aired by HBO); He directed and produced “Sometimes in April” for HBO (Berlinale 2005); “Moloch Tropical” (Toronto 2009, Berlin 2010); and his latest film “Murder in Pacot” (Toronto 2014, Berlin 2015).

His documentaries include “Lumumba, Death of a Prophet” (1990); “Desounen” (1994, BBC); “Fatal Assistance” (Berlinale, Hot Docs 2013) supported by the Sundance Institute and BritdocFoundation (UK), broadcasted on major TV channels (Canal+, ARTE, etc.)

He served as jury member at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, is presently chairman of the National French film school La Femis, and is the subject of numerous retrospectives worldwide. In 2001, the Human Rights Watch Organization awarded him with the Irene Diamond Lifetime Achievement Award.

He recently completed shooting his latest feature film, “The Young Karl Marx”, a European coproduction, shot in Germany and Belgium (produced by Velvet Film, in coproduction with Agat Films).

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In 2013, Raoul Peck also made a film about the problems created by the vicious circle of the "aid" manipulation in Haiti:

Trailer "Fatal Assistance", by Raoul Peck - Trailer: 

Award-winning Haitian born filmmaker Raoul Peck takes us on a 2-year journey inside the challenging, contradictory and colossal rebuilding efforts in post-earthquake Haiti.

Through its provocative and radical point of view, the film offers a devastating indictment of the international community's post-disaster idealism. While noting that a major portion of the money pledged was never disbursed, nor made it into the actual reconstruction.

A documentary film by Raoul Peck
France / Haiti / USA / Belgium - 2013 - Documentary - 1h40mn

'Out of the Comfort Zone' / 'En dehors de la zone de confort'

Hello everyone, hello from Paris.

I'm home and not in England or Italy or Africa or any other island because today my book is released in French, in Belgium, France and Switzerland.

Named in English 'Out of the Comfort Zone', it is the story behind the rare group of politically aware bands in the UK, bands who produced a revolutionary sound and always tried to also bring a form of consciousness in their discourse.

 The book is inspired by Massive Attack's first album, the remarkable and inimitable Blue Lines, and goes back to their first influences. This includes their very own hometown, Bristol, a port city that has been enriched by the colonies in America, the sugar and the slave trade in the eighteenth century. That very history also provoked a counter reaction and a sense of rebellion in its inhabitants, who fought against slavery a few decades later and rioted against unfair political decisions, inequalities, big corporations, etc.

This sense of rebellion materialized in the city's culture from the 1960s and mainly the 1970s, when the Caribbean population imported their very onw reggae music in the city's homes and clubs just before Bristol gave birth to its own punk and post-punk movement.

Then started Bristol's homegrown sound with the unforgettable band The Pop Group - and friends like Nick Sheppard and his band, The Cortinas, Maximum Joy, the Glaxo Babies, etc.

(The book cover is an astonishing and mesmerizing creation by Robert Del Naja himself, originally designed in 2009 for the E.P. named 'Atlas Air'. Deep recognition for his generous agreement to use it for this book).

From then started a new movement.

A few years later, hip hop and electronic music started to pour into Bristol's records shops and nightclubs and a new generation of DJs started to bloom. From that trend came to life the now legendary Wild Bunch, a collective that changed the game and gave to Bristol its gateway into the history of music. The Wild Bunch was originally an informal posse composed of the joined efforts of two young Black DJs, Miles Johnson, known as DJ Milo, and Grantley Marshall, nicknamed Daddy G. They were quickly joined by Nellee Hooper, a massive fan of punk music, who acted as a sort of producer / manager.


The Wild Bunch was quickly enriched in 1983 by a couple of MCs and by the first blooming and generally admired graffiti artist in the city, nicknamed 3D, aka in real life Robert Del Naja, an 18 year-old music junkie.

After years of adventures that this book retells, Grant and 3D formed Massive Attack in 1988 with their young friend DJ Mushroom and their talent soon outburst everywhere else in the UK when they released their first album in 1991.

In their path came to form a large number of other bands, producers and DJs, including the well-known Tricky and Portishead. A few years later, the graffiti movement 3D invigorated and revolutioned also took off in a wider scale.

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I wanted to write about Massive Attack's relationship with their city, Bristol, to show the roots of their greatness & mention their predecessors. To demonstrate how the city's history had a major influence on these self-taught and conscious, rebellious artists.

I then realized it would also be fascinating to retell the band's links with the artists and musicians who followed them, with their many brilliant collaborators and with those they inspired, from UNKLE to Gorillaz.

The book also follows Massive Attack's journey in the UK and further away around the world, via their tours and collaborations, in America and in the Middle East notably.

Therefore, the book becomes a form of parallel history of British culture, from an underground and unorthodox point of view. Bristol epitomizes another side of England, less known and much more humorous and rebellious!

I spent 18 months coming to Bristol, interviewing its musicians, artists and other local actors - and first and foremost the brilliant, intelligent, over talented Robert Del Naja, a real artist, an incredibly open, curious and cultivated mind, too discrete and so humble it was hard to believe so much modesty could match his bubbling and unstoppable creativity. He is also deeply aware of world affairs and engaged into holding a discourse though his music and his art; and for that rare boldness we should all be thankful.

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The English version of the book is on its way and it mentions today's music scene in Bristol, from the latest E.P. produced by Massive Attack to the return of the Pop Group and the birth of new musical trends.

For the French speakers, enjoy the French version!
/ Profitez pour l'instant de la version française!

You can order it here: https://www.amazon.fr/dehors-confort-massive-Attack-Bansky/dp/2843378095/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1475738468&sr=1-1&keywords=melissa


En dehors de la zone de confort - De Massive Attack à Banksy, l’histoire d’un groupe d’artistes, de leur ville, Bristol, et de leurs révolutions


See the publisher's page here: http://www.anne-carriere.fr/ouvrage_en-dehors-de-la-zone-de-confort-melissa-chemam-302.html

Qu’ont en commun le Pont suspendu d’Isambart Brunel, l’acteur Cary Grant, le groupe Massive Attack, le plasticien Damien Hirst et l’artiste de rue Banksy ? Ils sont tous originaires de Bristol, une ville moyenne de l’ouest de l’Angleterre. Une ville marquée par une histoire riche et complexe, mais encore jamais racontée !

Marquée par une fortune précoce liée à l’ouverture de l’Angleterre vers l’Amérique, elle devient aussi un des points névralgiques du commerce triangulaire. C’est justement cette histoire qui va nourrir, de manière inédite et radicale, la génération d’artistes éclose à Bristol à partir de la fin des années 1970. Post-punk et reggae se rencontrent autour de groupes comme Black Roots, le Pop Group puis The Wild Bunch.

Tout prend forme lorsque qu’un jeune graffeur anglo-italien du nom de Robert Del Naja signe du pseudonyme de 3D sa première œuvre de rue sur un mur de la ville en 1983. Avant de fonder le groupe Massive Attack en 1988 avec les DJs Grantley Marshall et Andrew Vowles, il rencontrera sur sa route les pionniers du post-punk de Londres et Bristol, les passionnées de reggae antillais du quartier de Saint Pauls, puis la chanteuse Neneh Cherry et le rappeur Tricky. 

Creuset inattendu mêlant hip-hop, reggae, soul et guitares rebelles, le premier album de Massive Attack, Blue Lines, sort en 1991 et provoque une révolution dans la culture populaire britannique. Massive Attack devient l’incarnation du succès d’un métissage à la britannique, et parviendra à toujours se renouveler, tenter de nouvelles révolutions et durer au-delà de nombreux mouvements musicaux des années 1990 et 2000, telles la Brit Pop, l’electronica et le drum and bass.

Dans le sillage de cette créativité débridée mêlant musique, art et implication sociale profonde, naissent aussi les groupes Portishead et Roni Size, les mouvements nommés trip-hop et dubstep, et le génial Banksy, inspiré dès son plus jeune âge par les graffitis de Robert Del Naja. Depuis, la profondeur artistique de ces artistes et leur engagement n’ont fait que se renforcer, tout comme leur lien avec leur ville. Ce lien va devenir le tremplin qui les porte jusqu’à l’autre bout du monde, de l’Amérique à Gaza. Il pousse aussi très tôt Robert Del Naja à se mobiliser – contre la guerre d’Irak, pour les droits des Palestiniens ou plus récemment pour l’accueil des réfugiés jetés sur les routes européennes. Rébellion, art, musique, engagement, Bristol synthétise ainsi une autre histoire du Royaume-Uni. Une histoire qui amène au sommet des charts et sur le devant de la scène de parfaits autodidactes et la part plurielle et afro-antillaise de la culture britannique.

Rendez-vous vendredi sur Ouï FM !!

On parlera de Bristol avec Marjorie Hache dans son émission consacrée à la musique britannique, UK Beats ! Sur Ouï FM. C'est à partir de 22 heures.

A vendredi! 

Thank you, you, wonderful you

As my book is out in two days in France, Belgium and Switzerland, I'd like to thank again all the wonderful artists, musicians and brilliant people who agreed to be interviewed in and out of Bristol for this project. 

They know who they are but still Annie McGann, Neil Davidge, Mark Stewart, Edson Burton, Roger Ball, Richard Jones, Inkie, Euan Dickinson, Mike Crawford, Sean Cook, Andy Spaceland, Andy Beezer Beese, thank you very much for your time and for sharing your stories and your views! Thanks to Tricky for being Tricky and for coming to Paris so often.Thanks to Adrian Utley for agreeing to represent the wonderful Portishead. 

Thanks to all Banksy's friends ;) 

Thanks to the younger generation: Kahn, Dr Meaker and of course to my friends Lady Nade and Seb Gutiez for their contribution to the dream :) 

And... an immense Thank You first and foremost to Massive Attack for being so creative, so generous and so special.

Massive Love to You, Bristol!!

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Bristol by my humble self lens...

Mon livre sur Bristol : Rencontre en librairie le samedi 8 octobre à partir de 19h

Retrouvez-vous ce samedi pour une lecture / rencontre autour de Bristol!

Paris 11e, à la libraire LIBRE ERE : 111, Bd de Ménilmontant.

En dehors de la zone de confort 

de Mélissa Chemam

LE SAMEDI 08 OCTOBRE 2016, 19:30 

Rencontre :

Mélissa Chemam 

Pour "En Dehors De La Zone De Confort"

Samedi 8 Octobre, 19h30

Libre Ere

111, Bd De Ménilmontant 

75011 Paris

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Résumé du livre :

Qu’ont en commun le Pont suspendu d’Isambart Brunel, l’acteur Cary Grant, le groupe Massive Attack et l’artiste de rue Banksy ? Ils sont tous originaires de Bristol, une ville moyenne de l’ouest de l’Angleterre. Une ville marquée par une histoire riche et complexe, mais encore jamais racontée ! Marquée par une fortune précoce liée à l’ouverture de l’Angleterre vers l’Amérique, elle devient aussi un des points névralgiques du commerce triangulaire. C’est justement cette histoire qui va nourrir, de manière inédite et radicale, la génération d’artistes éclose à Bristol à partir de la fin des années 1970.

Tout prend forme lorsque qu’un jeune graffeur anglo-italien du nom de Robert Del Naja signe du pseudonyme « 3D » sa première œuvre de rue sur un mur de la ville en 1983. Avant de fonder le groupe Massive Attack en 1988 avec les DJs noirs Grantley Marshall et Andrew Vowles, il rencontrera les pionniers du post-punk de Londres et Bristol, les passionnées de reggae antillais du quartier de Saint Pauls, puis la chanteuse Neneh Cherry et le rappeur Tricky. Creuset inattendu mêlant hip-pop, reggae, soul et guitares rebelles, le premier album de Massive Attack, Blue Lines, sort en 1991 et provoque une révolution dans la culture populaire britannique. Massive Attack devient l’incarnation du succès d’un métissage à la britannique, et parviendra à toujours se renouveler, tenter de nouvelles révolutions et durer au-delà de nombreux mouvements musicaux des années 1990 et 2000, telles la Brit Pop, l’electronica et le drum and bass.

Dans le sillage de cette créativité débridée mêlant musique, art et implication sociale profonde, naissent aussi les groupes Portishead et Roni Size, les mouvements nommés trip-hop et dubstep, et le génial Banksy, inspiré dès son plus jeune âge par les graffitis de Robert Del Naja. Depuis, la profondeur artistique de ces artistes et leur engagement n’ont fait que se renforcer, tout comme leur lien avec leur ville. Ce lien va devenir le tremplin qui les porte jusqu’à l’autre bout du monde, de l’Amérique à Gaza. Il pousse aussi très tôt Robert Del Naja à se mobiliser – contre la guerre d’Irak, pour les droits des Palestiniens ou, plus récemment, pour l’accueil des réfugiés jetés sur les routes européennes. 

Rébellion, art, musique, engagement, Bristol synthétise ainsi une autre histoire du Royaume-Uni. Une histoire qui amène au sommet des charts et sur le devant de la scène de parfaits autodidactes, et la part plurielle et afro-antillaise de la culture britannique.

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Le site du libraire : http://libreere.fr/index.php?post/En-dehors-de-la-Zone-de-confort-de-Melissa-Chemam

Reportage au Festival du Film Britannique de Dinard

De retour de Dinard, voici mon article pour le site de Transfuge :

Festival du Film Britannique

Par Melissa Chemam
le Lundi 03 Octobre 2016

Festival du Film Britannique : Une 27^èmeédition marquée par le triomphe de Sing Street, histoire irlandaise de musique et de rébellion

Hitchcock d'Or Ciné + / Grand Prix du Jury,Hitchcock du meilleur Scénario, Hitchcock du Public, Hitchcock “Coup de coeur“, Sing Street de John Carney a fait plus que séduire Dinard. Seule la Mention spéciale du président du jury, Claude Lelouch, a été attribué à un autre film, Away de David Blair.

Belle histoire d'adolescents dublinois sauvés de leur horizon 'no future' par la fondation d'un groupe de rock « futuriste », Sing Street a fait parler de lui toute la semaine. Le jeu de l'acteur principal, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, y est pour beaucoup. A la fois tendre et déterminé, drôle et amoureux, le personnage de Conor, 15 ans, dont les parents sont au bord du divorce et le grand frère dépressif mais mélomane devient le mentor, rend crédible cette histoire de chansons écrites dans un Dublin marqué par la crise et la fuite des Irlandais vers l'Angleterre, au milieu des années 1980. Le film sortira en France le 26 octobre prochain. 

L'Irlande a, avec l'Ecosse, pris la part belle de cette édition. Le film d'ouverture, Whisky Galore , a transporté le public sur une île écossaise des Hébrides, dans les années 1940, avec une histoire de pénurie de Whisky bien connu des insulaires, mise en scène par Gilles MacKinnon. L'autre grand film écossais de cette édition est le puissant Moon Dogs , un film du Gallois Philip John, connu notamment pour sa contribution à la série Being Human . Il suit l'évolution de deux frères par alliance forcés de vivre ensemble après le mariage de leurs parents et qui se retrouvent à fuir ensemble vers Glasgow à la poursuite de sa petite amie pour l'un, de sa mère pour l'autre. Ils seront unis par leur rencontre avec Caitlin, une jeune fille à la fois rebelle, paumée et déterminée.

Egalement remarqué, le film anglais semi gore / semi comique Prevenge , de et avec Alice Lowe, suit les crimes d'une femme enceinte dont le foetus l'appelle à venger la mort de son père. Une sensation étrange mais très britannique ! Autre coup de coeur du public : Finding Altamira , de Hugh Hudson, entraîne un casting international de haut vol (Antonio Banderas, Golshifteh Farahani, Clément Sibony, Pierre Niney, Rupert Everett) dans l'Espagne de la fin du XIXème siècle, au coeur d'une découverte, dans la grotte préhistorique d'Altamira, qui va révolutionner la pensée scientifique sur l'évolution.

Marquée par les débats incessants sur les suites du référendum du 23 juin dernier sur la sortie du Royaume-Uni de l'Union européenne, cette édition avait pour Invitée d'honneur la productrice de Ken Loach, Rebecca O'Brien. Elle a tenu à participer à une table ronde sur l'avenir politique du pays, après la projection du documentaire de Louise Osmond consacrée à la carrière de Loach, Versus , vendredi après-midi. Moi, Daniel Blake , projeté hors compétition, était de toute évidence l'un des films les plus attendus du public et a suscité une grande émotion. Variée, enthousiasmante, cette édition s'est refermée sur un voeu unanime de continuer à construire ensemble une Europe de la culture. 

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Lien vers le site du magazine : http://www.transfuge.fr/festival-festival-du-film-britannique,332.html

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Et quelques photos !

Bristol on UK Beats - Ouï FM

This week, I'll realize one of my dreams: I'll be interviewed in Marjorie Hache's show on Ouï FM, UK Beats!

We'll talk about Bristol of course, about some of the best British music of our generation and much much more.

Here is her programme or this week.

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Hello Hello Hello, 

THIS WEEK ON UK BEATS

Kate Tempest Interview. (07/10/2016)

The rapper, poet and author will discuss her new album "Let Them Eat Chaos" and why we've had enough "escapist music" and need to confront reality. 

Melissa Chemam Interview + Bristol Special  (07/10/2016)

In "En dehors de la zone de confort. De Massive Attack à Banksy", the author looks into how the mutli-cultural melting pot of Bristol made it such a vibrant artistic and politically engaged city. 

The book, which features an exclusive interview with 3D (Massive Attack) and a number of Bristolian artists, will be released this week in France (06/10) but should be getting a UK (and English language release) in the near future. 

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UK BEATS

Listen again to all our shows here 

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En français :

JOURNÉE SPÉCIALE BRISTOL DANS UK BEATS sur ouï fm - vendredi 7 octobre

Rendez-vous le 7 octobre à 22h avec Marjorie Hache !

Ce vendredi 7 octobre, ce n’est pas une, mais deux invitées que reçoit Marjorie Hache dans son émission UK Beats (22h-23h). Retrouvez dans un premier temps Kate Tempest, qui sort son deuxième album, Let them Eat Chaos, le jour-même. En plus d’être chanteuse, Kate est également poète. Découvrez ainsi un univers original et unique, dans lequel l’artiste allie son flow charismatique avec des textes travaillés et contestataires. Le résultat est à la fois détonnant et relaxant.

Mais un invité peut en cacher un autre. En effet, pour cette émission spéciale Bristol, Marjorie Hache reçoit également Melissa Chemam, écrivaine qui paraît ce jeudi 6 octobre En Dehors de la zone de confort, un livre qui parle de Massive Attack, célèbre précurseur du trip hop, mais également de l’univers qui gravite autour, notamment leur ville, Bristol. Ce livre contient notamment un entretien exclusif avec Robert Del Naja, alias 3D, du groupe. L’auteur viendra présenter son travail au cours d’une interview qui promet profondeur et pertinence sur un univers artistique trop méconnu en France.

Pour écouter cette émission exceptionnelle et profiter de la playlist de Marjorie Hache, rendez-vous le 7 octobre à 22h sur OÜI FM.

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lien : http://www.ouifm.fr/journee-speciale-bristol-dans-uk-beats/

Chanson douce...? Plutôt berceuse sans pitié

 Mon article - en français - pour Toute la Culture sur le dernier livre de Leïla Slimani, pressenti pour les Prix Goncourt, Renaudot et Flore.

Le lien vers le site : http://toutelaculture.com/livres/fictions/chanson-douce-ou-la-berceuse-sans-pitie-de-leila-slimani/

• FICTIONS
  
  

CHANSON DOUCE : OU LA BERCEUSE SANS PITIÉ DE LEÏLA SLIMANI

28 septembre 2016 Par Melissa Chemam 

Le champ lexical du sinistre est enrichi avec dévotion : la pluie est grise et froide, les appartements exigus et sombres, la belle-mère intraitable, les parents débordés, la nourrice trop parfaite et la violence sourde et impossible à stopper. On l’a compris, Chanson douce est un titre au rire jaune.

Les personnages nous renvoient à toute la laideur de nos sociétés occidentales et ne se nourrissent que du vide : Myriam, la mère, rêve de devenir avocate, elle quitte donc le foyer pour plaider mais on ne saura jamais pour qui ni pour quelle cause ; de même, Paul, le père, rêve de produire des musiciens, mais peu importe lesquels finalement et sa plus grande émotion professionnelle tourne autour de la contemplation de sa montre Rolex qu’il s’apprête à cacher à sa mère soixante-huitarde. Mais le plus gros morceau de déviance se cache dans la nourrice, Louise : quadragénaire malingre et dépressive, maniaque, mauvaise mère de plus qui a traité sa propre fille comme un boulet, élevant les enfants d’autres familles, plus riches, plus occupées, plus bourgeoises, encore moins aimantes. Elle est, quand elle rencontre Myriam et Paul, seule et criblée de dettes. Mais ils ne s’en soucient guère. La première scène du livre est glaçante et rien n’est épargné au lecteur : avant même de s’attacher aux enfants de Myriam et Paul Massé, il les voit mourants, victimes d’atroces violences, baignant dans le sang. La nourrice, elle a raté son suicide.

Les thèmes de l’enfance, de la difficulté à devenir parents, du rôle de la nourrice sont des thèmes périphériques de la littérature française, mais récurrents, présents depuis des siècles, notamment dans le théâtre, de Molière à Musset. Ici, nous sommes plus proche de La Main sur le berceau que d’On ne badine pas avec l’amour. Il s’agit d’un angle particulièrement pertinent pour étudier notre société hiérarchisée, pressée, matérialiste. La nourrice est celle qui prend le temps pour que les enfants aient encore un peu de droit à l’enfance, celle qui entend les secrets de famille et les garde discrètement. Pourquoi l’auteur n’y a trouvé qu’une collection de détails lugubres ? Est-ce une dénonciation trop subtile, trop acharnée, de nos modes de vie désincarnés, où même l’amour maternel n’a plus de place ? Si oui, la dénonciation avait-elle besoin de cette accumulation de malheurs : le mère est complexée par ses origines sociales sans se l’avouer, a un besoin dévorant de poursuivre une carrière qui la rend aveugle, le père ne fait pas de sentiments, se méfie de tout le monde, et la nourrice a été maltraitée par son mari, vit dans un appartement sale sans que personne ne s’en préoccupe, et frôle désormais la folie, tentée par l’autodestruction…

Le roman est bien écrit, composé comme il se doit en 2016 – ni trop long ni trop court, cyniquement ironique comme son titre, pessimiste et sans pitié. Mais les motifs ayant poussé l’auteur à l’écrire restent, même à la fin, sibyllins…

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Leïla Slimani, Chanson Douce, Gallimard, 18 euros

Bristol in the US' Public Art Review

I wrote this article for the 2016 Spring / Summer edition of the prestigious Public Art Review, published twice a year in the US.

As the new issue is to be published in the coming days, this article is now available online!

Here it is. Enjoy!

Bristol’s Wild Style

Powered by visionary curators, innovative local artists, a vibrant music scene—and Banksy—public art in the capital of England’s west country is making a mark

The capital of England’s West Country, Bristol, is a very visual place. Houses are painted in bright colors and the city center is dominated by the graceful shapes of the sailing ships on the Floating Harbour, which faces the blue Bristol Channel and the Irish Sea.

Bristol is also very visual in another sense: For more than three decades it’s been a special hotbed for public art. Sculpture, performance, and street art started blooming in its streets during the bleak years of the 1970s recession and under Margaret Thatcher’s government in the 1980s. With the turn of the century, the economic recovery and the efforts of a talented group of artists and curators propelled the city into one of the world capitals of public art.

Right at the center of Bristol, on the Floating Harbour, is Pero’s Bridge, a pedestrian footbridge named in honor of Pero Jones, who came to live in the city in 1784 as the slave of a famous Bristolian merchant. The bridge, designed by Irish artist Eilis O’Connell, opened in 1999 as part of an effort to shed more light on the role of the slave trade in Bristol’s history. It’s one of the many examples of public art that make the city special to this day.

Another is The Black Cloud, an imposing wooden pavilion designed by international artists Heather and Ivan Morison in association with architect Sash Reading, which stood for four months in 2009 in Victoria Park in South Bristol.

At one end of Pero’s Bridge, on Narrow Quay, is the Arnolfini Gallery, one of the key places where new reflections on the purpose of public art started in the mid-1990s, thanks to Caroline Collier, its director until 2005, now at the Tate in London. Caroline was a mentor to Claire Doherty, curator and founding director of Situations UK, a group based at the Spike Island Gallery, a short walk away along the River Avon. The Situations group paved the way for a new form of public art in the early 2000s.

Talking with Doherty in the Spike Island Café, it’s not hard to see how this dynamic, elegant, charismatic, and open-minded arts professional succeeded in bringing major changes to the slightly outdated world of British public art circa 2000. With the help of the University of the West of England, and thanks to some financing from the Bristol City Council, she set up Situations UK as an independent two-year program whose goal was to think about the role of public art and its social context.

Doherty’s main idea was to think through the whole process of creating public artworks “from the studios to situations,” as she told me. Beginning in 2003, she organized lecture programs, inviting some of the key figures in the public art sector, such as the French sculptor Daniel Buren.

In 2009, Situations received an award and a £30,000 grant. It became an independent charity in 2012 and set up some new principles for public art when Doherty published the booklet The New Rules of Public Art in 2013.

Her “Rule no. 01” states that “it doesn’t have to look like public art. The days of bronze heroes and roundabout baubles are numbered. Public art can take any form or mode of encounter—from a floating Arctic island to a boat oven—be prepared to be surprised, delighted, even unnerved.” Rule no. 02: “It’s not forever.” Other rules encourage artists to go for the unplanned, create links inside the community, embrace provocation, and remain open to outside people and ideas.

“Our new independence allowed us to become an organization with an artistic vision,” says Doherty. “And that also comes from the fact that Bristol has the perfect size, unlike London, to be able to quickly, as a new actor, contribute to its scene on a large level. We then felt we had a purpose and a role.”

Looking for Renewal

Beginning in 2014, Situations UK launched events that quickly brought about a turning point. The Art Weekenders, three-day marathons of artist talks, studio visits, performances, cross-genre installations, and other events across the city, highlighted pieces by Marcus Jefferies and Colin Higginson, among others.

Then came 2015, a special year for public art in Bristol. In July, English sculptor and land artist Richard Long, born in Bristol in 1945 and trained at Saint Martin’s School of Art in London, was commissioned to develop a temporary public artwork for the Bristol Downs public parklands as part of his solo exhibition, Richard Long: Time and Space, at the Arnolfini Gallery. The artistic year culminated in November 2015, when the brilliant Chicago-born artist Theaster Gates staged his first UK public project in Bristol, as part of the cultural program for Bristol 2015 European Green Capital.

Entitled Sanctum, it set up, with the support of Situations, a temporary structure within the shell of the fourteenth-century Temple Church, using discarded materials from various places across the city. Gates invited musicians and performers to sustain a continuous offering of sound and spoken words in the structure, 24 hours a day for 24 straight days. Among the performing artists who participated in Sanctum were the Bristol Reggae Orchestra, the Dead Astronauts, William The Conquered, banjo player Béla Fleck, and a gospel choir, as well as local playwright Edson Burton and poet Miles Chambers. The aim was to foster a space for collaboration and new encounters. More than 1,000 performers took part.

“Theaster is very generous, and in every artwork he does he brings in other great talents,” says Claire Doherty. “I went to meet him personally in Chicago and I was delighted to discover he knew about Situations and he knew about Bristol, mainly thanks to its fantastic music scene! He is a fan of Massive Attack and Portishead. When he arrived in Bristol, he immediately picked up on its aesthetics.”

For Doherty, the value of such a performance doesn’t lie in its duration but in “how it lives on, unlike official statues! Part of the beauty comes from the fact that it’s going away. It is difficult to commission, but it’s what we aim to do: value the experience, attract people, and increase their well-being.”

A City of Different Parts

Bristol is a special place for the arts in the UK because, according to Doherty, “it is a city made of lots of different parts that don’t often get to speak to each other.” For her, one of the roles of public art is to bring about a dialogue among all these parts.

Bristol’s diversity has been key to its cultural bloom since the 1980s. That diversity was first reflected in its underground music scene, in which some of the city’s brightest youth started mixing strains of punk rock with reggae and nascent hip-hop. The mix grew popular in the mainly Jamaican communities in Saint Pauls, Knowle West, Barton Hill, and elsewhere. In 1983, a young artist with the pseudonym 3D started painting graffiti in different areas of Bristol, inspired by New York graffitists such as Futura 2000. 3D’s pieces melded wording, can-made art, and figurative decorations.

Born Robert Del Naja in 1965, 3D soon became the main artist working with the DJ collective The Wild Bunch. His art enlivened the walls of places such as The Dug Out nightclub, the Special K café, and the Hamilton House community center in Stokes Croft, a street that links the Saint Pauls area with the city center.

The movement started to explode when, in July 1985, the Arnolfini organized the first graffiti exhibition in a British gallery, Graffiti Art, with the 20-year-old 3D at the center of events, along with local artists, New Yorkers, and Birmingham-based Goldie. After that, and thanks to the influence of American photographers Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant’s book Subway Art and Charlie Ahearn’s film Wild Style, graffiti evolved in Bristol as a very special form of street art. Influenced by 3D, well-known artists Nick Walker and Inkie emerged in the late 1980s.

“Lots of young artists were linked by then and kept in touch,” says Inkie, aka Tom Bingle, born in 1970. “At the Barton Hill Youth Club, [youth worker] John Nation started to have a whole library of photographs from our murals and some space always available to paint. There were so many connections between us that Bristol rapidly became an epicenter for graffiti.”

Also a lyricist and rapper, 3D became a founding member of the band Massive Attack in 1988. Ten years later, also inspired by 3D’s murals, and with the help of John Nation, the man who would become the most renowned street artist in the world appeared in Bristol: Banksy. To this day, Banksy’s 1998 mural The Mild Mild West still adorns the wall of Hamilton House, attracting thousands of visitors every month.

A whole new generation followed, with artists such as Cheo, Cheba, Cosmo Sarson, Angus, and Conor Harrington leaving their mark on the city. And in 2015, Bansky made a spectacular return to his home region by opening a “bemusement park,” baptised Dismaland, in Weston-super-Mare, a few miles from Bristol. Few unauthorized public art projects of such daring have been set up with such success. Bristol’s official public art is thriving, but it’s the celebrated outlaw Banksy who now epitomizes how much the city has to offer in terms of art beyond gallery walls.

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Freelance journalist Melissa Chemam has been covering news and culture for 13 years. Born in Paris, she has lived in Prague, Miami, London, Nairobi, and elsewhere. She’s writing a nonfiction book about Bristol.

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Link to the review's webpage: http://forecastpublicart.org/public-art-review/2016/09/bristols-wild-style/