« On January 16th, 2020, I receive a message: Hello, I am your older sister. It is at that moment that I understand my story is not the one I was told.

I then begin research on child trafficking between Burundi and Belgium from 1993 to 1998 and become aware of the extent of the situation — and of the fact that I am not an isolated case. This is confirmed when I meet investigative journalist Alain Lallemand, who covered these topics in the 1990s and explained to me all the ins and outs of the trafficking I was a victim of.

I then decided, together with my artistic team, to imagine an exhibition space that questions transnational adoption, identity displacement, and the collective history linking our territories — a space where the personal and the political intertwine.
A path made up of video capsules, archival documents, photos, and writings, brought to life by inclusive or non-mixed conversations, reminding us that the exhibition “walks” in the footsteps of its visitors.
It is a place for sharing in order to raise awareness, for creating in order to gather, for storytelling in order to heal. A return to Burundi, possibly. »

In this space, subtitled A Return, spectators are invited to be at the very heart of the intimate research that has become artistic.
It is a space where visitors experience Consolate’s process through documentary capsules (video/sound), photos, writings — but also a place for encounters and debates. Here, Consolate no longer narrates — she exchanges.

The quest for identity thus becomes a social action, integrating the public as an active participant.
The meeting space appears as a place where the research continues through discussions and debates.
The public may, of course, simply be present and discover the various works born from the research process.

The moment of encounter is built as a convivial time, where a special place is given to those directly concerned, offering them a caring space for expression — a place where it becomes possible to exchange about transnational adoption and the collective history that connects Burundi and Belgium.

Distribution

Concept, writing, drawings and performance
Consolate Sipérius

Video-documentary
Gaspard Audouin

Sound design
Gaspard Dadelson

Scenography
Micha Morasse

Pedagogy – Research related to Burundi
Annabelle Giudice

Photography
Mathis Bois

Mixing
Jean-Noël Boissé