Through his work, M'hammed Kilito particularly wanted to tackle the growing instrumentalisation of fear towards the Other, from abroad, in Valais, where 1 inhabitant out of 4 comes from emigration. Having taken note of political positions such as those of the UDC, he chose to highlight "by an inverted process, the relationship between Swiss and migrants: What happens when fear gives way to generosity, mutual aid and humanism? ".
The series presented focuses on the exchange of experiences, skills and knowledge as well as the diversity of backgrounds and destinies. As the artist recalls, not everyone is equal in the face of migration: some migrants manage to recreate communities while others face a form of isolation; some easily learn French, others have great difficulty; some have come by choice, others have fled the war and can not return home; some have carried with them personal belongings linking them to their "old life", others have lost everything; some of them manage to perform the function or the job they were in, others have to give up ...
In the end, the work emphasizes the great richness that different cultures represent when there is the possibility of cultivating and transmitting them. In this respect, the artist wonders about the consequences of a certain conception of integration as assimilation, which implies renouncing one's roots, one's language and one's culture. Through the work he has done, the Moroccan photographer has been able to experience the multiculturalism of Valais, mentioned above. In fact, it was a mischievous observation that young people who had come to meet migrants (by taking part in "Ethnopoly" or the kitchen workshop of the Crans-Montana Intercommunal School Center) also represented a large number of young people. 'origins. And to emphasize the point he wanted to put forward through his photographs to bypass the fear of the Other - the idea of sharing and meeting - he chose as the title of the exhibition the formula that his Malian friends say they are leaving each other to say goodbye: "We are together! "
Benoît Antille, curator
Addis is a young refugee recently arrived to Switzerland from Ethiopia when I photographed him. He made a long trip full of adventures and crossed the Mediterranean getting to Sion.
Mohammed is a double refugee, he was a Palestinian refugee in Syria and then a Syrian refugee in Switzerland. The photo alludes to the employment that Mohammed exercised in Syria, he was and still is civil engineer, but for questions of language and diploma equivalence he can not exercise his profession for the moment.
Daniel and Christian are twins from a mixed marriage, a Swiss father and a Haitian mother. They have the habit of chewing in all the apples of the kitchen without finishing them.
Jorge is Peruvian, he obtained a scholarship to do a master's degree in visual art at the Cantonal School of Art of Valais and finally settled in Sion.
"I left my hometown because I did not want to become a motorcycle taxi driver, nor work in logging companies. Because I was not admitted to the agronomy program at the university of my city, I became a wanderer and heartless dissident, it was the late 90s and I had to make decisions. In the same decade, with Alberto Fujimori's totalitarianism, the economy collapsed and, even though terrorism was over, problems persisted and the outskirts of my city began to grow disproportionately, I lived in a place where I could not find myself, nor could I accept or believe that I had skills at drawing. I knew there was a school of fine arts in my city, but I was not convinced because, in the mentality there studying arts is only for shattered or crazy people. After a while, I decided to perfect my painting skills. I had the courage to enter this institution of "failures". It was where they technically perfected me on the human figure and the landscape. I spent two years and was tired because the orientation had a marked nineteenth century accent. I went to another school like this, where I endured a year of pure blah, blah, blah. I ended up studying in a country [...] where I persevered and left instability "- Jorge Raka
Shehan is Tamil, the day I had to photograph him, he came with a hood. According to him, his lawyer advised him not to show his face for fear of retaliation against his family by Sri Lankan government forces.
[...] They have left a land they love, either because it can no longer feed them, or simply because they no longer find it safe. They come to us without any good, but with immense hope: to find a land of welcome. Hope, unfortunately often disappointed. That is why it is necessary that spaces exist where the migrants can feel welcome, where they can also bring their experience of life and enrich us with their culture. Give-receive, receive-give, that's why the Intercultural Space exists." - Vital Darbella
Rimma is from the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia, she came to join her Swiss husband in Champlan.
Charles-André (Switzerland) and Mickaël (Wales) met as part of the Godfather-Godmother program. The program aims to strengthen the reception of newcomers in the commune of Crans-Montana, to facilitate their integration and their participation in social life. Mickaël works in the vineyards.
Lucia and Suzanne are two sisters of Portuguese origin, they settled in Sierre about twenty years ago. Our Lady of Fatima is the name under which the Virgin Mary is invoked as she appeared to three children in Fatima, a small village in central Portugal, six times during the year 1917.
Lucia and Suzanne have no pictures of their childhood, no one thought to take pictures of them in their village in Portugal.
Asad is a young Somali refugee. He is learning French at the Intercultural House in Sierre, Switzerland. The main challenge for newcomers to a host country is the language barrier. They can not easily interact with people and understand what's around them, but especially a challenge because without the language they can not really find a job.