AIRFRANCE.be

The painting La première traversée du Sahara en 1924 (The first crossing of the Sahara in 1924), by Paul De Gobert in 1984, is the starting point of the unusual quest that gradually led to the AIRFRANCE.be installation. Blowing the entirety of their budget on this painting found abandoned in the former garage, the two visual artists set to looking into information about the painter, the various stakeholders, and the archives in order to retrace the chronology of this work. Legend has it that the painting was given to the director of the premises by a client in exchange for some repairs. It portrays, as if by chance, the expedition referred to as The Black Crossing, financed by André Citroën at the beginning of the century to promote his brand and was at first displayed in the showroom then canteen, before being abandoned when the garage relocated in 2017. The artists have restored its place in the history of the building and have little by little surrounded it with the various items they have discovered during their research.