Contact Sheets Festival #17 – Swiss Life Four-Handed Prize: “The Chaos That Gives Me Life” – an atlas of an imagined country by Oleñka Carrasco & La Chica

There are countries we leave behind. There are others that continue to live within us. “The Chaos That Gives Me Life” is one of them.

This project was born from the Creole memories of El Callao, in Venezuela. From this land springs an imagined country, where photography breathes, where music tells stories, where scents awaken buried memories, where voices convey what cannot be said otherwise. Combining concert, storytelling and a living installation, Oleñka Carrasco and La Chica create a sensory atlas where every image becomes a door, every song a passage, every breath a rediscovered memory. It is not about looking. It is about entering. To allow oneself to get lost. For sometimes one must journey through an imaginary land to rediscover the one we carry within ourselves.

Established in 2014 by the Swiss Life Foundation, the Swiss Life ‘À 4 mains’ Prize is the only arts prize in France to bring together photography and music. It offers a duo of artists the freedom to create an original work by blending their worlds. Each edition supports contemporary creation and fosters the convergence of these two disciplines, through exhibitions and concerts presented in cultural venues across France.

Performance followed by a signing session.