Saturday 30 November at 17 hours, el artista nigeriano Yo-Yo Gonthier presentará su instalación participativa “La nube que hablaba” en el barrio de La Boca.

Este evento forma parte de una propuesta cultural organizada por el Institut français d’Argentine en conjunto con la Fundación PROA, con el respaldo de Fundación Medifé, Air Liquide, el Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires y el Centro de Mediación Artística Australia.

La actividad comenzará en Proa21, ubicada en la avenida Pedro de Mendoza 2073, donde se inaugurará “Soy el hijo del río”, an exhibition that shows the journeys of this emblematic cloud through different parts of the world. The exhibition will be open to the public from 30 November and can be visited for free throughout December, Thursday to Sunday, the hours of 12 a 19 hours.

“The Talking Cloud” is a large-scale installation that has been created in collaboration with local artists., as Javier Ferrante, Juan Carlos Urrutia, Sebastian Baez, Pedro Montes de Oca, Yhomara Muñoz and Paula La Fea. From Proa21, This immense cloud will begin a tour through the streets of La Boca, culminating in a symbolic journey over the Riachuelo.

Gonthier's proposal invites us to reflect on how current societies relate to their collective memory and the role that artists play in the contemporary social context.. The cloud, conceived as a blank page, allows participants to express thoughts that would otherwise be forgotten, becoming a tool of collective emancipation.

The project has its origins in 2011, when Gonthier gathered two hundred people, mostly young, to build an eight-meter-long embroidered aerostat. Since then, this cloud, that represents a break with the norms of everyday life, has traveled to various countries, generating encounters and connections between communities. Its first activation took place in Saint-Denis, France, and was later carried out in places such as Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean, Abidjan in the Ivory Coast and Niamey on the banks of the Niger River.

In each representation, The cloud is transformed into a collective experience that Gonthier documents through films in 8 mm, photographs and essays. These artistic pieces, created in collaboration with others, expand the scope of the project, taking the poetic gesture beyond geographical and cultural borders.