Co-Movere

Commovere (Latin): To affect (from affection) arouse emotion/be moved by someone/something.

Co-movere: To move together.

Commotion (English): violent disturbance, upheaval, and political insurrection, disorder.

Como-vere: how to see it

Diana, George, Josue, Emmanuel, Bior, Deng, Simon, Dereje, Eric, Bijoux, Faustin, Faith, James, Ifa, Yak Tap, Jacob, Jackline, Adam… Five years of my life were shaped by sharing my daily life with people that had been forcibly displaced by war and conflict. Each one of these names carries the memory of a story, an anecdote, a disappointment, a smile, a moment together. Many of them shared their stories with me during intimate conversations over tea, prompted by my own personal revelations, others told their experiences and feelings through more formal interviews, written accounts or videos. With some of them I shared shelter, some sheltered me, a few of them got angry with some of my reactions, others laughed at my “so called” art, two or three asked me for things that I could not provide, others really got on my nerves. Living together in refugee camps, shelters or migrant ghettoes, people in all shapes, sizes and personalities; acquaintances, collaborators, students, flatmates, some friends, a lover. People that affected my life, whose lives I may have affected. Co-Movere is a very personal and intimate response to some of these people. Personal stories that resonate in my own story and echo in my own experiences and  in our common humanity.