PRINCES I
TOUSSAINT
Les Mornes, Le Feu
La Troisième Ile - II. Conch
La Troisième Ile - I. Zouk Béton
Palmier
INSULAR
(2022-ongoing)
Photographic series, variable formats
EN
In less than half a century, Portobello Road in London’s district of Notting Hill went from a slum to one of the UK’s most expensive streets; a microcosm of «super-gentrification». Only few people know that this neighborhood was once one of the liveliest in the Caribbean community after the arrival of the Windrush generation in the 1960s, becoming heart of the famous carnival, but also of anti-racist struggles and riots, an historical ground for the formation of Black Brittish identity. From carnival late summer days to london winter, I’ve been looking for what remains of this community, arpenting the streets of Notting Hill in the search of a black sense of space. In this contemporary urban landscape reshaped by gentrification, the soundsytems, taking over the streets once a year like monuments, become symbols of resistance : a sonic homage to Caribbean culture, a reminder of History. The title, «Hurricane Blues», is taken from the writting of the Jamaican dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, a forefather of dub-poetry in 1970s Britain.