Sang-mêlé

2019 - ongoing

As a human being, in Westernized or non-Westernized societies, we have two types of experiences: some are individual while the others are collective.

The relationship to others manifests itself in multiple contexts: family, friendships or intimate relationships, colleagues, communities. Each person has their own view of the other through the prism of his own construction, his education and his life experience.

We can only really identify our relationship to ourselves by taking the time to probe our interior, our deepest feelings: our desires, our fears, our shame, our frustrations. This can sometimes lead us to meet a new person who is nevertheless an integral part of our being. This discovery can lead us to a virtual inevitability of comparison: What are we in relation to each other? Are we more or less valuable than the other?

Humans have gradually moved away from their nature by creating evolved societies, by compartmentalizing themselves. All these elements combined have only multiplied the divisions. What if we go back to our human condition, to our primary constitution, but we keep all this collective societal experience, even in its darkest aspects: community issues, the fear of being judged by the other, discrimination?

Sang-mêlé, which is the French expression for mixed-blood, also has the same pronunciation as to entangle (s’emmêler). It is the idea that we are more than individuals and more than sets of individuals. We are part of an entity that is both visible and invisible, which is very often beyond our rational understanding. Today it is necessary to take into account the complexity that makes up every human being, and that each of the facets that make up a person can connect them to other people. And those far beyond the groups with which we have built ourselves today.