La Ressourcerie Culturelle
Attentive to the history of the margins and peripheries, Bintou Dembélé noted the paucity of existing documentation on the theme of popular cultures, the peripheries and the margins, street cultures, artists and thinkers from the peripheries.
This gave rise to a desire to go back in time and highlight original initiatives aimed at working-class neighborhoods, particularly from the 1980s onwards, such as “Les enfants de l’immigration” (Exhibition at the Centre Pompidou-Beaubourg/1984).
In collaboration with long-standing partners (Samba Doucouré, president of Africultures, Awatef Bouchet-Chengal, in charge of programming live shows at the Musée de l’histoire de l’Immigration/Palais de la Porte Dorée, Luc Pinto Baretto, founder of Dealer de livres), In 2021, a first step was the production of the Dico Décodeur de la Fabrique des périphériques, the first (unpublished) database with a 20-page summary, bringing together major references, in print and web editions, podcasts and documentary productions in France, around minority cultures, their histories and their artistic productions.
From then on, Bintou Dembélé mobilized her personal archives and continued to solicit partners to set up a Ressourcerie Culturelle in a working-class district of Bagnolet, in collaboration with the Maison de l’Ecologie Populaire.
The Ressourcerie has a dual function:
- to build up and host a documentary collection of written, musical and filmed productions from the outskirts of the city and/or telling the stories of these territories and their inhabitants (over 400 occurrences already collected)
- Propose a program of ongoing artistic and cultural activities, primarily aimed at local residents, young people and adults alike, in partnership with local players who have the confidence of the local population.
In the summer of 2023, the first events to showcase the documentary collection will be Lire au Parc, organized by the Département de Seine-Saint-Denis in its parks.
A program of artistic workshops (early music and instrumental practice, yoga, etc.) is offered in partnership with other local players (Toffoletti social center, Maison du Parc, Maison de l’écologie populaire).
This approach is part of the long-term process needed to overcome the consequences of exclusion and invisibilization experienced by people living on the periphery.
Through this project, Bintou Dembélé is experimenting with another way of being an artist in the city-state.
This project receives dedicated support from the Francis Kurkdjian Foundation.
Crédits photos : La Ressourcerie Culturelle
