War Tourist

5-channel video installation, colour, stereo sound (in English with English subtitles), 98', 2004-08

In cities which have been through a war or a disaster recently, or which are known to be dangerous, a professional tourist guide is hired and asked to organize a guided tour - which is filmed - of the worst destructions, or the most dangerous zones in the city.

war tourist wants to see, up close, the chaos and pain of others. He travels the world in search of ever-stronger sensations. His curiosity also acts to keep these events at a distance. He travels to assure himself that all this destruction and pain are well and truly somewhere else and that they don’t threaten him at home.

The guide’s talk brings two views of the place face to face: the local view and the outside view. In the relationship between the guide and War Tourist, these two views meet through an arrangement identical to that of a supplier filling a customer’s order. The guide shows the tourist what the tourist wants to see, even if it means inventing an idealized, picturesque version of reality. He expresses himself in English—the language of tourism—and, even though they are wholly intelligible, his words are subtitled and slightly altered, in that same language. This detail denotes the tourist-viewer’s sense of superiority and reinforces the idea that the guide is indeed the Other: never perfectly clear or comprehensible.

To watch the videos
www.wartourist.net

War Tourist in Sarajevo, 19' 46''
This video shows a visit of Sarajevo's ruins.

War Tourist in the Suburbs of Paris, 19' 42''
This video brings the visitor to the suburbs of Paris, where important riots took place in 2005.

War Tourist in New Orleans, 18'34''
This video brings the visitor to New Orleans, two years after hurricane Katrina devastated the city.

War Tourist in Chernobyl, 19' 57''
This video brings the visitor to Chernobyl, in the exclusion zone created after the explosion of a nuclear reactor in 1986.

War Tourist in Auschwitz, 19' 49''
This video brings the visitor to the concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau where over 1 million people died during WW2, mostly Jews.

Realized with the support of

Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec

Association Arrimages

bibliography

interview with david norr, elsewhere catalogue, usf contemporary art museum, tampa, fl, 2007

City Sharing, War Tourist in the Suburbs of Paris, Juin 2007

MARTI-JUFRESA, Felip, "War Tourist in Chernobyl", Etc, no.81, Montréal, mars-mai 2008

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artv, mange ta ville, "danger", november 2008

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Debatty, Régine, "Emanuel Licha's War Tourist series at LOOP", we-make-money-not-art.com, june 1, 2009