A residency creation by Geneviève Alaguiry

The aim of the creative residency in Villèle, which opened on Monday 16th October 2023, was to create a sculptural work highlighting the figure of the fugitive slave. It will be presented in the context of the annual ‘20th December’ event held on the site of the Villèle Museum.

The artist Geneviève Alaguiry was commissioned to create the work. In the past, her papier mâché sculptures have attracted attention, notably though the very special effects she has succeeded in developing over the years.

In actual fact, this creative residency has two objectives: first of all creating an original work around the figure of the fugitive slave and secondly inviting the young people of the 31st intake of the Académie des Dalons¹ to contribute to the process of artistic creation, encouraging them to discover the visual arts as a profession, as well as art and creation in general.

The papier mâché sculpture depicts maronèr è maronèz: male and female fugitive slaves emblematic of freedom in Reunion. Five heads of men, women and children are represented emerging out of the cliffs of mountains in the island’s interior. They represent major ethnic groups from Madagascar, Africa and India or Creoles born on the island, all having contributed to creating the population of Reunion as we know it today.

Geneviève Alaguiry’s aim was to focus not on the suffering but on the hopes and dreams of these fugitives, hopes and dreams which became a reality for a certain number of them. This is how she has represented them: at peace and with their eyes closed. The faces are smiling and gazing up towards the ideal of a life of freedom, towards a future they can build for themselves. They are literally stepping out of the two mountain chains separated by the riverbed, the common thread of their journey, symbolic of life.

They are not simply stepping out of the mountains, but are also contributing to their creation. Cimandef, Marianne, Anchaing, Héva and Mafate: they were the first to discover our mountains, the interior of the island, the remotest spots and the highest peaks, appropriating its steepest slopes. The artist expresses the way in which they tamed the harsh terrain so familiar to them. The footpaths are represented using gold foil, gold being the colour of light and perfection. Light, in its association with life, speaks to us of persons in the past, from social death and their inexistence through being enslaved human beings to Life… a life of freedom through becoming fugitives. From the asphyxiation of an imposed condition, the fugitive achieves perfection through a freedom arduously acquired: “(…) A fugitive, I am reborn.”

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¹ L’Académie des Dalons is an experimental project set up by the Departmental Council of Reunion, aimed at the social and professional integration of motivated voluntary participants aged between 18 and 25.