Benoît Laffiché's 'Déplier' at La Criée, Rennes

Benoît Laffiché's exhibition 'Déplier' at La Criée in Rennes (September 9 – October 16, 2011) features three recent videos exploring borders, globalization, and human migration. In the main space, 'The Endless Summer' loops a 90-degree rotated excerpt from Bruce Brown's 1966 surf film, showing surfers in Senegal at a location now used by both fishermen and migrants. 'Pirogues' depicts a nighttime fishing scene off Dakar, lit only by torches held in fishermen's mouths. 'Jato' triangulates the show with archival footage of barefoot marathon runner Abebe Bikila winning the 1960 Rome Olympics, intercut with present-day scenes of Ethiopian runners training in his native region. The installation combines sound, visual, and architectural elements to reflect on visibility and post-colonial, post-global historical motifs. Laffiché previously gained attention at the 2008 Rennes Biennial with 'Vasanthi & Vani', a three-screen video of a cinema demolition in India. His decade-long focus includes sites like Sangatte, the Andaman Islands, the southern Schengen borders, the Celatex factory, and the Ethiopian highlands.