Dialogue Among Civilizations The Art of Human Rights
Jack Beng-Thi (Artist) and Patrice Treuhardt (Poet) – Reunion, Le Port
Jack Beng-Thi (Artist) and Patrice Treuhardt (Poet) representing Reunion, Le Port in the Art For Humanity, “Dialogue Among Civilizations” Print Portfolio 2010.
Artist Statement:
Il est question de conditions humaines…..
Des hommes, femmes et enfants pris dans l’évolution rapide du monde….. Peuples, géographies et histoires se télescopent, se bousculent et se mélangent sur la planète Terre. Autant d’esclavages de déportations, de migrations et d’errances qui tissent depuis l’aube l’histoire de l’humanité entière. Réunionnais, portois et artiste engagé je suis particulièrement ému et heureux de participer et de faire entendre notre voix dans ce projet de « Dialogue parmi les Civilisations » porté par l’afh et la Ville de Durban, qui représente à mes yeux un acte de résistance majeur face au dangers permanents qui menacent nos sociétés par le biais de la xénophobie, l’intolérance, la violence et l’inhospitalité.
L’Art et la Poésie sont des fers de lance de nos luttes pour une reconnaissance de nos valeurs, nos cultures, des créations de l’esprit humain afin de fonder un espace de dialogue temporel et spirituel. Les œuvres proposées seront les miroirs de nos pensées, de nos sentiments, des ponts jetés par-dessus des frontières trop longtemps fermées. Une forme, un ombre, une matière, un mot, une phrase, une parole, un geste pour raconter, montrer nos identités multiple et salutaires.
Dans cette action culturelle internationale pour lutter contre l’oubli, les artistes, les poètes seront les messagers d’un espace-temps tourné irrémédiablement vers l’altérité. It is about human conditions … ..Men, women and children caught in the rapidly changing world … .. Peoples, geographies and histories
collide, jostle and mingle on the planet Earth. Both deportations of slavery, migrations and wanderings that
weave the story since the dawn of humanity. Reunion, carried about and committed artist I am particularly
excited and happy to participate and make our voices heard in this project “Dialogue among Civilizations”
worn by the AFH and the City of Durban, which represents to me an act of resistance major dangers facing
the ongoing threats to our societies by means of xenophobia, intolerance, violence and inhospitable. Art and poetry are the spearheads of our struggles for recognition of our values, our cultures, creations of the human spirit to build a space for dialogue temporal and spiritual. The proposed works will be the mirror of our thoughts, our feelings, bridges thrown over the border closed too long. A shape, shadow, material, a word,
phrase, word, a gesture to tell, show our multiple identities and salutary. In this cultural international fight
against forgetting, artists, poets are the messengers of a space-time turned irretrievably to otherness.
Poem by Patrice Treuhardt
Les Mots Créoles Sont Les Oiseaux De Tous Les Voyages
Patrice Treuhardt (Poet)
de tous les tangages de tous les langages
quand je parle créole / je parle arabe / malgache / malais / indien /
chinois / swahili / africain / portugais / anglais
je parle français bien sûr
avec des mots français de France et de Navarre
des mots marins partis marron pour résister comme en kabar
ma langue créole toute métisse folle
ma langue créole toute rebelle belle
bruissant de tous les voyages
de tous les tangages de tous les langages
jusqu’à sonder les reins et les cœurs / les rires et les pleurs
les mots creoles sont les oiseaux de tous les poemes
Pour prendre language comme pour prendre nouvelle
English Translation by Gaby Bikomo
Words like in Kabar
Creole words are birds of all journeys
Of all pitching, all languages
When I speak Creole/I speak
Arabic/Malagasy/Malay/Indian
Chinese/Swahili/African/Portuguese/English
Of course I speak French
With French words from France and Navarre
Marine words turned maroon in order to
resist like in Kabar
My Creole language fully crossbred
My Creole language fully rebel beautiful
Rustling from all journeys
Of all pitching all languages
To the point of sounding out kidneys and
hearts/laughs and cries
Creole words are birds of all poems
To learn language or to take news alike
Isizulu Translation by Rosethal Lolie Makhubu
Amagama njengase-Kabar
Amagama esiKhriyoli ayizinyoni zazo zonke
izinkambo
Awo wonke amaphimbo, azo zonke izilimi
Uma ngikhuluma isiKhriyoli/ngikhuluma
isi-Arabhu/isi-Malagasy/isi-Malay/isiNdiya
isiShayina/isiSwahili/isi-
Afrika/isiPhuthukezi/isiNgisi
Vele ngiyasikhuluma isi-French
Ngamagama esi-French sase-France nase-
Navarre
Amagama ase-Marine aphenduke aba
ngumbala obubende ukuze akwazi
ukuzimelela njengase-Kabar
Ulimi lwami lesiKhriyoli luyinhlanganisela
ephelele
Ulimi lwami lesiKhriyoli luyimbuka elihle
Lihwashazisa kuzo zonke izinkambo
Zawo onke amaphimbo azo zonke izilimi
Kuze kube yilapho kuzwakala khona izinso
nezinhliziyo/uhleko nokukhala
Amagama esiKhriyoli ayizinyoni zazo zonke
izinkondlo
Ukufunda ulimi noma ukuthatha izindaba
ngendlela efanayo
LANGENIER, Jean-Yves
Mayor of Le Port (Reunion)
Is Reunion Island that miraculous land which generated a multicultural society? Is it that land of dialogue among civilizations? What does one discover behind the postcard? “(…) when i speak Creole/I speak Arabic/malay/indian/chinese/Swahili/african/portaguese/english, I speak French of course(…)”
This word of poet Patrice Treuthgardt translates the diversity of cultures crystalized by the language of Reunion. Overtime, the successive bringing-ings of populations has shaped this language called Creole through which all are brought together.
Who are these people of Reunion? They arrived by waves on this Island of the Indian Ocean still inhabited until mid XVIIe Century, coming from Africa, Madagascar, Comoros, India, Asia and France; bringing a piece of their ancestral land with them engulfed behind the horizon line. Reunion Island is often quoted as an example of a land where communities that come from different continents live harmoniously together while still keeping their traditions, their cultures, and their cults. Can we let ourselves delude by this idyllic image?
The insularity, the slavery which is recognized today as a crime against humanity, the colonialism will always seriously mark the society of this country where some sores always distill a latent suffering that no one can ignore: striking economic inequalities, a growing social malaise, and an enduring national identity exposed nevertheless to the powerful attacks of
globalization and to the predominance of North-South relationship. Our duty as committed citizen is for us to stand against any attempt to undermine that national strength generated by the intermingling of cultures, the strength that makes out people unique, people who honor their ancestors regardless of their origin and above all people open to the rest of the world.
Our participation to the project “dialogue among civilizations” is a common act of sharing and resistance for us all from the city of Port of the Reunion Island twinned with Durban since 2005. An act of sharing because our human condition pushes us to go and meet the other person. Sharing can not be accomplished without accepting the difference, the otherness. To share with others is to dialogue, to learn, to move from being a “member of a particular clan: to that of an engaged citizen, open to the rest of the world. An act of resistance because we have to face plot of an organized silence regarding some chapters of the history. Here in Reunion Island and elsewhere, resistance was organized and led by women, men and humanists; by artists. The plastic surgeon, Jack beng-Thi and the poet, Patrice Treuthardt are among them. They use their art as a mean of showing resistance to those who organize amnesia to atrophy the collective
memory. An art of life in the land of Reunion. The contribution of the city of Port to “dialogue among civilizations” will consist of expressing that need of sharing and the capacity to resist while showing our “way of life in the land of Reunion”