TOGO EXOTIQUE is a reflection on the racist and colonial bias of photography, which still perpetuates the relationship of domination between the artist (active and creative) and their muse (passive).

Almost all contemporary visual productions always place the same people (privileged and/or white and/or male and/or from the Global North) in the position of representing the same people (precarious and/or racialized and/or gendered and/or from the Global South).

In TOGO EXOTIQUE, Elsa Leydier proposes a reflection on the impossibility — both formal and ethical — of creating an accurate image of a territory and its inhabitants, when colonial relationships underpin the histories of the photographer’s countries of origin and those of the people photographed.

The artist has chosen to work with 35mm colour analog film, a medium now antiquated in the digital age. This type of film was used by amateur photographers as international travel became more popular and accessible, contributing to the trivialisation of image production and representations of the Global South by individuals from the Global North, often characterized by privilege and colonial biases.

By immersing unexposed analog films in a «film soup» made from ingredients found in a Parisian store selling products imported from West Africa, Elsa Leydier creates abstract, dreamlike images. Through these visual propositions, the artist wishes to underline the impossibility of ridding herself of the exoticizing filters that mark her gaze.