Creative residency supported by the city of Givors, the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and the University of Paris 8.
Pursuing a reflection on the city of Givors engaged since its installation on the territory, Stimultania invited Po Sim Sambath in residence of creation. The young Parisian photographer traveled for five months, from February to June 2017, alone, the nooks and crannies of a changing city. Without fearing to show his presence, Po Sim Sambath recorded gestures, often collective, with the precision specific to film scouting. Gestures constituting active or inactive populations, accustomed to associative bars, idle of the CADA (Reception Center for Asylum Seekers), bowlers and tattoo artist.
Then, driven by the decidedly irresistible attraction of abandoned places, the artist strolled through the Fives-Lille factory which, in the past, employed up to 8000 workers in the shaping of wagon wheels and axles. Emptied of their historic occupants, the buildings have found new uses: between the badminton net and the modules built to serve as a fallback for airsofters, new codes and protocols guide men. The latter, in a framework which is now a leisure activity, adapt and occupy the space with a precise sense of choreography. In images of striking power, Po Sim Sambath gives us a particularly edifying state of space and an observation of the territory.
Curator: Céline Duval
Scenography: Étienne Andréys
Born in 1980 in Paris, Po Sim Sambath works around marginal territories and the uses made of them by groups of people. She regularly presents her work during group exhibitions, notably at Synesthesia, the Museum of Hunting and Nature or the National Library.