Precarious Snow I
Girose Glacier, La Meije, Massif des Écrins, Hautes-Alpes, 2021

 

'Neige précaire' is the second set of a project exploring the concept of integration.

 

The series focuses on the experiences of three Guinean asylum seekers — Alpha, Boubacar and Touré — who, thanks to an association of volunteer mountain guides, left their camp in Seine-et-Marne for a few days to travel to the Hautes-Alpes and explore the glaciers of the Écrins massif.

 

The project explores the emotional and traumatic aspects of this return to the mountains. Two of them crossed the Alps from Italy at the risk of their lives, at the end of a long migratory journey. Finding themselves back in this environment reawakens buried emotions.

 

As the walk progresses, amidst the fatigue, sensations emerge. This immersion allows them to confront their fears, to relive them, and sometimes to overcome them. It also offers a respite from a daily life marked by precariousness, administrative procedures and the wait for a decision on their asylum application.

 

Between a state of limbo and a fragile sense of breathing space, this experience gives rise to a series of portraits and landscapes, in which the latter appear as mental projections of their fears and hopes.