Working Men Have No Country

The need to rethink the struggle against social injustice requires us to take different paths. No longer bound by the horizons of one dominant culture, they lead to places where diverse outlooks are recognised and represented. Guided by postcolonial scholars such as Achille Mbembe, Bieke Déporter, Edward W. Said, Adrian Paci, Linn Phyllis Seeger, Stuart Hall and many others, this book sets out to examine the notions of exile and migration, family and cultural ties, and sociability in a world which is now largely digital. Such notions are all too often misrepresented or absent from contemporary political priorities, in spite of the efforts of artists, militants and activists to review them intelligently. Our aim, therefore, is to address the following questions: what are the visual, political and literary ties that once joined universities in Africa, Eastern and Western Europe and what form do they now take? How can past rebellions shed light upon modern areas of inequality? How can we “rethink” certain values which have survived in the ruins of colonialism and slavery? How can photography and literature lead us to question certain tenets of imperialism which are still accepted when disguised as core principles of democracy? This book is a broad fresco made up of singular adventures and lives, from the October Revolution to the fall of the USSR and decolonisation. By re-drawing geographical boundaries outside the official narratives of the four areas of migration, we have tried to examine education, propaganda and racism in the political contexts of successive migrations, leading to the postsocialist and postcolonialist movements. September 2022 - 18x26.5cm - 160 pages - bilingual EN/FR -Krasimira Butseva is a visual artist, writer and educator based between London, UK and Sofia, Bulgaria. Krasimira is one of the co-founders of Revolv Collective - an organisation exploring alternative methods for teaching and creating photography through exhibitions, events and collaborations. In addition, she is the co-editor of eep magazine - focusing on contemporary photography from Eastern Europe. In her practice and research, Krasimira explores human rights, social injustice, political violence, traumatic memory, official and unofficial history in relation to Eastern Europe through moving image, photography, installation and writing. https://krasimirabutseva.co.uk/ -Guillaume Chauvin joined the Hans Lucas studio in 2015. Based in Strasbourg (FRA) and Ekaterinburg (UK), he has become accustomed to off-track experiences and regularly questions the subjectivity of images. Permeable to alternative zones and characters, he publishes his photographs, poems, manifestos or war stories in the press and collaborates with multiple sponsors. He is also developing his work as a writer for Éditions Allia (La Faute aux photos - 2018, La vie Russe - 2014 and Aucun détour ne ment - 2011) and as an independent publisher with Éditions M'habitent. He has participated in several group exhibitions such as "Azimut", with Tendance Floue at the Centre d'Art de photographie de Lectoure in 2021, or "Lusted men" at the Rencontres d'Arles in 2020. https://hanslucas.com/gchauvin/photo -Ziad Naitaddi is a self-taught visual artist; his interest in photography started while he was dreaming to become a filmmaker. Since 2013, he devoted his time to photography through a cinematic research which he explores in the form of documentary and fiction. He works more through the optic of his personal perception; his work experiences the life and human as pure profound emotion. Naitaddi’s work has been exhibited in different shows, publications and collections, including Center of Contemporary Photographic Art-Villa Pérochon (Niort); 13th Dakar Biennale; Fondation Dapper; 8th Image Festival (Amman); 16th Angkor Photo Festival (Siem Reap, Cambodia); Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center (Ramallah), Sharjah Art Foundation (Sharjah); among others. Ziad Naitaddi is represented by Galerie 127 (Marrakech/Montreuil). https://www.ziadnaitaddi.com/ -Sofia Yala Rodrigues is an Angolan and Portuguese photographer. She develops a very personal and experimental approach to photography, driven by her interest in Portuguese and Angolan history, migration, transatlantic identities and realities. During confinement, she began creating digital collages to explore and revive her family archives. Her digital assemblages called "Playing with Visual Fragments" or "Type here to search" become active media, capable of opening new community dialogues and sharing little-known colonial histories. Sofia Yala Rodriguez takes her readers aboard the ships where her ancestors worked and to the shores which they trod; she recalls the spirit of militancy they nurtured but shows too how the internet both feeds and alters her own searching and remembering. https://www.sofiayala.art/ ESSARTER [ESAƦTE] meaning to strip clear and liberate a space, re-establish a terrain, to make accessible an unexplored area. ESSARTER Éditions is an association specialised in photo-documentary books. Its creation was born from the meeting between Mathilde Vaveau, photographer, and Lou Reichling, graphic-designer. Paul de Lanzac, photographer, joined them a few months later. Based on our common interests - books, documentary photography and literature - and our complementary skills, our main objective is to create books where texts and images meet and sometimes confront each other. Collectively and without distinction, we are working with scholars, photojournalists, amateurs, academics, inhabitants, tourists, experts, and neophytes. It is through the printed book that we wish to record our society: the book is both a literary and a visual essay. Between the documentary, which offers visibility on selected facts in images, and the fiction, which tells stories through words, our books offer to curious readers new and original literary experiences. Our books address some of the major societal, political, and historical issues by looking closely at borders, conflicts, migrations, and cultural belonging. How and why should history be made a modular object? How does popular heroism construct official history? How can we understand today’s inequalities through the revolts of the past? Why is it necessary to talk about borders, exile, and migrations today? Why is it important to think about the memory of the landscape and man’s imprint on it? “ESSARTER” means to clear away the undergrowth, to clear a piece of land to open a field, a fresh and unexplored area. Each new project is the meeting of authors, who have infiltrated moving terrains, outside the lines drawn by the giants. They all investigate drifting places, searching, cutting, cropping, sorting out information, with their experiences, their past, and their knowledge. Why do we suggest you to pre-order a copy of Working Men Have No Country? To be sure to receive a copy in your mailbox before it hits the shelves. Events in physics can be far from your home, pre-sales will always allow you to acquire the book without having to travel. To benefit from a discount on the price of the book. To participate financially in the printing of the project. ESSARTER Editions' income comes mainly from the sale of books and therefore the cash advance for a big project like this is substantial. To adjust the number of copies to be printed. For the rewards, you will find: A limited promotions on the book An unlimited number of copies at the release price A pack with Musée Immédiat and Red Utopias All these rewards will be sent and delivered as soon as the book is released. All people contributing to the pre-order are invited to book launchs and exhibitions. Various structures support us and more will do soon for this project. These partnerships allow us to print the book, organise exhibitions and meetings: > With editing support of Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP) https://www.cnap.fr/ (France) > The ministère de la culture and région Centre Val de Loire by CICLIC https://ciclic.fr/ (France) > Galerie 127 https://www.galerie127.com/ (Marocco | France)