Ricochets, les galets que nous sommes finiront par couler (Epilogue)
Julien Creuzet’s oeuvre considers the colonial partitioning of Africa at the 1885 Berlin conference as key to understanding modern-day terrorism. It revisits that wrenching moment and its rebound effects in the context of history and space, materialized, for example, by the European flag torn up in pieces. A concern for revealing causalities with “macro” consequences recurs elsewhere in the installation. The use of rice in his sculptures reveals the tension between the foodstuff’s nutritional value, widespread consumption, low cost and the ecological and speculative dangers associated with it that could lead to global starvation. Here and there, amulets and antidotes – forks turned into weak magnets and vials of Quinton (purified sea water) – counterbalance these butterfly effects of natural, geopolitical and social history.