Georgia is the name of the ship that, in 1906, took to New York a certain Ljubisa Danilovica young nineteen-year-old Montenegrin, dreaming of elsewhere. It is in Butte, a mining town in Montana, that a fictional conversation on the theme of exile begins, a century later, between the photographer and his namesake. Ljubiša Danilovic imagines, in 2021, the journey that will take him from his native Montenegro to the United States, thus repeating a journey in every way comparable to those that thousands of migrants must undertake today around the world. By mixing, in her eponymous work, photographs of the city of Butte, of a Montenegro offering little horizon to young adults dreaming of elsewhere, of a nostalgic Montenegro – that of her childhood -, of migrants met in Paris, Calais or Sarajevo, and others who have spent their lives far from their country of birth… Ljubiša Danilovic speaks with one voice of the small story but of course also of the Great History of exile. “I tried to respond, in images, to the emotional journey of my namesake, through this experience that he has of uprooting”. Alternating texts and photographs, black and white and color, author’s gaze and documentary work, Georgia is an imaginary epistolary relationship, on the theme of exile, but also and above all is a historical perspective of the migratory phenomenon.
About Ljubisa Danilovic
Ljubiša Danilovic’s photographic work often arises from a fascination with a territory that echoes his own history. He is the author of four books, Avoir 20 ans à Belgrade (Ed. Alternatives), Le Désert russe, La lune de Payne and Georgia – Une histoire des migrations (Ed. Lamaindonne).
commissioner Florent Basiletti
scenographer Elizabeth Guyon
partenaires Fujifilm, Slika Slow Print, SHL
L’Engagement
from July 1 to September 29, 2024
Fondation Manuel Rivera-Ortiz
18 rue de la Calade
13200 Arles
www.mrofoundation.org
