[2021-2022] Nadia Kaabi Linke in the Ouest Rhodanien conurbation authority

Capitalising on its novel two-year timeframe, Veduta is expanding its area of intervention and reaching out to this multi-municipal authority in the west of the Department of Rhône.

This area, a rural environment with a historically rich culture, offers a playground conducive to creating a project that spans a number of its villages. The project, co-devised and co-constructed with the various partners, will cover an unprecedented geography, reaching beyond the usual district-sized footprint to cover a larger area with diverse realities.

For this new experience, the artist of Tunisian and Ukrainian heritage Nadia Kaabi-Linke has been invited to engage with the territory and its history. Drawing on her personal experience of the countries where she grew up, Kaabi-Linke takes a multi-disciplinary approach informed by matters to do with migration and borders.

Embedded in the territory where she is creating, the artist explores the imperceptible contradictions and invisible issues that shape it. To her, the Ouest Rhodanien area’s textile production, its many factories that employed local female workers, and its large proportion of woodland are all starting-points for a long-term reflection process. Having immersed herself in the territory in the final quarter of 2021, the artist has devised a project around its forest-related issues. To interrogate the way humans exploit their settlement areas and shape the landscape, Kaabi-Linke is focusing on the tree species that may have partly disappeared (or been replaced) due to land exploitation. For the upcoming Biennale, she is working on an immersive audio installation that will simulate both the presence and the absence of a hybrid tree that says something about the territory’s history, but also its potential.

This project is part of the “Redessinons le territoire, paysage(s) et patrimoine(s)” project.
Ouest Rhodanien arts and culture lifelong education agreement.

Photo 1: during the artist’s scouting trip in the Ouest Rhodanien authority area, on the COFORET site © Veduta/Biennale de Lyon
Photo 2 : View of the Haut-Beaujolais eco-museum in Thizy-les-Bourgs, 2020 © COR