Public Space

A public space might be defined as a place that belongs to the community. A place where people give up part of their privacy to the community, where thus "visible" things are exhibited, shown and seen...
In countries where the central power is very strong, the frontier between the private and the public can be quite blurry, as one's intimate spaces are freequently scrutinised by the powers-that-be. In "modern western democracies", surveilliance cameras and other spying devices render most of the intimate spaces public, with similar effects (though lesser immidiate impact) on the individual's private life. Even the TV set spies as well as our Internet terminals, sending back information about our daily habits and behaviour. Information that is precious both for decision makers and to marketers who then develop strategies that will overcome any of our attempts at freeing ourselves.
Dictators use physical violence to control their subjects, "democracies" use more refined tools to subdue their citizens reduced to entries in statistic charts!
What is then personnal and what is social?
Am I personnally affected by what is going on thousands of miles away from my native Cameroon in Afganistan? Does it at least affect my vision of the world?
Has the poverty around me any impact on the way I define myself as an individual? If I am talking about the wealth, poverty, happiness or sorrow around me, Am I speaking also about myself or am I speaking on behalf?
Art dwells frequently on this blurry frontier were the public and the private mingle, where the social and the individual meet. Art is at best an idiosyncrasic expression. But it requires, in order not to be reduced to a monologue, the understanding of the other and as such it requires a space that is not private, but public. This means that the personnal view here should be "sharable". That is to say it should encompass features that are similar in views held by others. Talking about these shared views is also talking about myself and the kind of opinions that I share...
I as an individual !!!

Mokolo market square: under the heavy sun in a marquet square in Yaoundé, Cameroon, I unrelentlessly put nails on a wooden sculpture that I produced in my studio. January 1997
La Ciotat: with three video cameras attached to my body, I try to capture the daily life in a popular square in a poor neighbourhood at La Ciotat, in Southern France, Summer 2003. The video is later on shown in the same neighbourhood to the population
Bessengue City: a project involving four artists ( Hartanto, James Beckett, Jesus Palomino and Goddy Leye) and numerous youths in one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Douala, Cameroon. A shelter was built and a radio station set up. 2002
Amstel Dam: one camera attached to the front and one to the rear of my bycicle, I move in the city of Amsterdam, trying to record every single occurrence on my way. The cameras are visible thus raising the awareness of the public on the work being produced...
Alexandria (El Max): in a poor neighbourhood in Alexandria, Egypt, I produced a series of colourful stickers with a text in arabics reading: it is possible nowadays to feed and cater for the entire humanity if such is our desire. The stickers are distributed to school children who happilly paste them on their text books. The same text is written on a wall in the neighbourhood by a young painter who received a pay for the job. 2004
Bepanda: a poem is written on the wall of a house in a shanty town in Douala, Cameroon. A young female sign painter is paid to do the writing of poetry into this neighbourhood. 2007
Joucas: images of electoral campaign for legislative elections are collected from the street, manipulated on computer and later on shown in the public space.
France. 2007