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Date

4 May 2019

Gallery

Tbilisi City Counci

Opening time

20:00

Benedicte Kurzen

Lake Chad Chronicles

Curators: Gregor Beltzig, Teona Gogichaisvhili

Always guided by a clear sense of ethics, Bénédicte Kurzen (b. 1980, France) feels a sense of urgency to confront the troubling realities of our world. For the past thirteen years, the photojournalist has provided in-depth visual coverage of conflict and socio-economic changes in the African continent where she has been based since 2008. In 2012, Kurzen became a full member of NOOR Photography Agency, which seeks to contribute to a growing understanding of the world by producing independent visual reports that stimulate positive social change and impact views on issues of global concern. 

A Diary of Resilience and Survival

Since 2009, Boko Haram jihadists have spread terror over the Lake Chad region and infiltrated trading and economic channels in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon – whether softly or brutally – as was case in the massacre of Baga Kawa in January 2015.

With the onset of war, markets emptied slowly, rich businessmen were ruined, and farmers fled the lethal lootings in the rural areas. A year ago, international NGOs officially declared famine to be a major concern in the region. Since the Islamist sect took up in arms in 2009, twenty thousand people have been killed in the Lake Chad region and over 2, 6 million have been displaced.

But in the past few months, traders are taking advantage of infighting within the terrorist group (which has splintered into two groups), in a desperate effort to start to trade again and bring back on its feet the economy of the region. Nigeria is key to the entire food trade, as the country"s demography far surpasses all the other countries and absorbs their production.

These unprecedented steps towards peace and development challenge our view of an African continent completely dependent on international aid to help to heal its wounds. The war is not over, and poverty denies young people a perspective for a decent future, forcing them either to migrate towards Europe or to join the terrorist group. From the fish market and the abattoir in Maiduguri to the green edges of Lake Chad in Bol I intend to tell the story of Sahelian’s resilience.