Gwada Family Album

Guadalupe is a small island, an overseas region of France in the Caribbean.

This island is so small that you can cross it in 4 hours by car. This is one of the most mixed places in the world, considering its size: we have Europeans, Africans, Caribbean, Indians, Lebanese and Syrian people. Multiple cultures have naturally blended, starting from the colonial period, over the years. This region has always been a connection and a meeting point. This cultural variety finds a natural mirror in the physical conformation of the island, with a tropical forest that counts over 3.000 different plant species (quite emblematic of the multiple cultural roots), a black volcano and white beaches, waterfalls and highways. All in 1.628 km2. Even the language is a mix: the official one is French but everybody speaks Creol, which is French mixed with indigenous and African languages. This project aims to investigate this mix from an intimate point of view. I will be a member of different kinds of families, analyzing their daily life, trying to understand how collective identity and personal identity coexist and combine, with a particular attention to the relationship with France, the imposed homeland. Along this research, I will put particular emphasis on the geography of territory. The result will be a global picture of the island’s identity, like a big and inclusive Family Album. The project is still in progress.