Join a world with 150 Million French

In the video "Join a world of 150 Million French Speakers" the artists couple Boisseau / Westermeyer choose to focus on a French-language club called the ”groupe du mercredi“, which has been meeting together in cafes for the past twenty years in Chicago, in order to investigate if the French speakers coming from all over the world build a community. The result is not without humor - a harmonious accordance among the participants, though without any verbal exchange. The sound of the video is reduced to the ambient sounds recorded within the café. The camera never focuses on the one in the group who is speaking, but only on the person who is addressed. Thus we are given the impression that the participants communicate with each other without using words. The silence induces us to read the faces and eyes without knowing the subject of their conversation. –Katja Schlenker