Solo show, Magasin des horizons, Grenoble, France, 2020.
J'ai tué le papillon dans mon oreille (I have killed the butterfly in my ear), clay drawings, banana tree trunks,
white wicker weaving, wax, banana leaves, video projections, water circle, audio
Video installation with soil, wax, beads, banana flower, banana stem, water with ink, plastic bag, conch shells, banana leaves, burnt wood, locally made weaving in wicker, 2 videos, audio track made from Watabwi Laboratoire d’Archive de l’Oralité.
In 2020, Minia Biabiany presented the exhibition J’ai tué le papillon dans mon oreille (I Killed the Butterfly in My Ear) at the Magasin des Horizons in Grenoble. This exhibition explored ecology from a non-Western, specifically Caribbean, perspective, questioning lesser-known aspects of French colonial history and the insidious violence that stems from it.
The main installation, titled Pawòl sé van (in Creole, “words are wind”), incorporated elements such as cotton threads, bamboo, and conch shells, creating an immersive space where visitors were invited to wander. This work examined the deconstruction of narratives through installations, videos, and drawings, constructing an ephemeral poetics connected to colonial realities.
Minia Biabiany’s work focuses on spatial perception and explores the paradigm of weaving processes as well as the concept of opacity in visual, oral, and written languages. Her poetic and political approach encourages us to take a closer look at overlooked aspects of French colonial history, which continue to be perpetuated through concealed acts of violence.
This immersive installation is a poetical narrative giving a voice to the denunciation of an ecocide. Since the 70’s, the use of a pesticide with chlordecone in banana fields in Guadeloupe has heavy consequences for the population for centuries. A sentence of the video Toli Toli «Butterflies provoque blindness when they blow in your ear» was used to organize the spectator’s experience throughout the space. The idea of not seeing is here a possibility to relate in a unsual way to what surrounds us, to recreate dialogue and a renewed possibility of listening. The spectator is led by a pattern made out of soil drawn on the floor that symbolizes storytelling. In the whole space the codified sounds of blown conch shells for fire, death, and rebellion can be heard. Hanging sculptures in burnt wood and wax, votive to the wind, are guiding to two videos in conversation. On the floor canoe like weavings are burnt, half destroyed half re- composed, carrying banana leaves.
©Camille Olivieri