Mémoire de l'Avenir

Recording of the discussion that took place on 30.01.2021 - 18H30 on the ZOOM platform

This discussion around the theme of Secret is part of a project and an exhibition of the American artist Suki Valentine, titled Sous le Pli / Under wraps, currently presented online on Mémoire de l'Avenir's website.

Over the last two years, through her project Under Wraps, Suki Valentine has been questioning the significance of Secrets - Based on her research, Suki has produced two bodies of work; one is linked to history of a country, the other is associated to history of an individual, or of one’s family – contributing to one’s personal or collective (multi) structures.

The secret carries within it many aspects and functions. In the private sphere, if it is at times necessary for the construction of a person or for his or her protection, it can also go as far as to decay generations with it.

The same is true in the social, economic or political sphere. This protective function can be also found there: we could cite medical secrecy, industrial secrecy, voting secrecy, defence secrecy... But when it turns into concealment, and is detrimental or unfavourable to the other or to society, it must be exposed.

The question of its disclosure arises when it exercises a disproportionate form of constitutional or social power, when it contravenes the law, when it produces injustices or inequalities, when it prevents citizens from being informed about facts or about decisions they have to take.

Today, secrecy, particularly in relation to the exercise of power, is not well known and is being tested by an ever-increasing demand for transparency on the part of citizens. The precarious balance that it is in use, requires, in fact, one of the major democratic and political challenges, joined by that connection to the liberation of speech movements facilitated by certain public actions like the Meetoo movement.

To address the different aspects of secrecy and its functions and implications, Mémoire de l'Avenir invited:

Suki Valentine, visual artist, activist, writer and poet. After obtaining a BFA in Metallurgy at the Pratt Institute in New York, she obtained an MFA - Studio Art at the Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia, where she received the MCAD Grad Fellowship Grant; She is particularly interested in issues of equality in society. In recent years her work has focused on questions related to the inequalities and violence experienced by women and minorities in the United States as well as the dominant history. [from 7' ]

Estelle Gioan, psychotherapist at the transcultural consultation founded in 1994 in the Bordeaux University Hospital . She explains to us the impact of secrecy on migrants, who are the patients of this specialized consultation. She explains also the methodologies of work they use, especially with the arts. [from 19'30].

Sabine Marbat: Hypnotherapist - Why do we hide things? What impact does secrecy have on the individual and the family? [from 38'50]

Florence Levi, editor-in-chief of the French-Portuguese transdisciplinary journal Sigila. The journal aims to take into account and encourage multidisciplinary approaches to secrecy, and to highlight, thanks to the confrontation between various fields, convergences or gaps between the issues presented. The journal endeavours to sketch the boundaries, relationships, exchanges and interferences between secrecy, enigma, mystery, concealment, lies, intimacy, silence, mutism, confession, denial... [from 53'07]

Jean-Philippe Foegle, doctoral student in public law specialising in the legal status of the whistleblower, and coordinator of the Maison des Lanceurs d'Alerte. He is also interested in the notion of transparency in our democracies.

[from 1h08]

Guy Girard, filmmaker and photographer. This film takes the fold as a red thread and obsession deployed through plastic art, music, science, fashion or the flamboyant expressions of nature, and strives to decipher what the fold in its form hides or reveals. [was not able to talk because of technical problems]

LINKS

Links related to the topics raised during this discussion:

64,000 to 75,000 African-American women and girls are now missing in the United States.

https://womensmediacenter.com/news-features/the-urgent-crisis-of-missing-black-women-and-girls

350,000 persons of minority backgrounds are missing in the USA.

https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2019/11/15/unsolved-missing-black-girls-women-cases-underreported-montgomery-county/4165154002/

Revue l'Autre https://revuelautre.com/

association Ethnotopies https://www.facebook.com/associationethnotopies

1 example of a mediation around dance:

https://vimeo.com/327327295?fbclid=IwAR3_6oug0EmFdRbEJqLXI8Dt2HKELSqIjlAuJrn80RxRd-xaJAn8e3H7sgA

SIGILA magazine on secrecy http://www.sigila.msh-paris.fr/-Les-Numeros-.html

Whistleblower's house: https://mlalerte.org/

Article by Jean-Philippe Foegle "Democracy, transparency and secrecy" https://www.cairn.info/revue-esprit-2019-4-page-103.htm?contenu=article

Appeals by associations to the Council of State concerning archive documents classified as secret/defense documents

https://www.archivistes.org/Acces-aux-archives-classifiees-secret-defense-Un-collectif-d-associations-et-de

secrecy and collective construction:

https://www.courrierinternational.com/article/histoire-france-algerie-peut-construire-une-memoire-commune-sans-repentance-ni-excuses

THE

SECRET

DISCUSSION

30.01.2021 - 6:30PM

Mémoire de l'Avenir presents "Sous le Pli" / "Under Wraps", an exhibition by the American artist Suki Valentine, who in her latest project explores hidden personal and collective narratives, while questioning the impact of these hidden narrations on the construction of self and of social identities.

"Under Wraps" / "Sous le Pli" unfolds around two corpora of works and research by the artist, one linked to the silence of History and the other to the silence of individual stories or of families.

THE EXHIBITION