AIRFRANCE.be

In the former Citroën garage, Simona Denicolai and Ivo Provoost stumbled upon the abandoned painting La première traversée du Sahara en 1924 (1989) by Paul De Gobert. Legend has it that a customer gifted the painting to the former director of the garage, in exchange for car repairs. The work depicts the "Croisière noire" or "Black Cruise", a car expedition that crossed the African continent from north to south in the early 20th century. The artists call into question the colonial violence of the expedition, which was bankrolled by André Citroën to promote his brand. For a lon g time, the painting was displayed in the showroom of the Brussels garage, which employed many workers of African descent. Later it was moved to the canteen, where it was left behind when the business closed shop in 2017. Determined to piece together the history of the artwork, the artists set out to find the painter and the people involved, scouring the archives for information.

Their quest to uncover the painting's provenance resulted in AIRFRANCE.be. In this installation, the artists restore the work to its rightful place in the history of the building, surrounding it with discoveries they made during their research.