Special Projects
Baluchons project - Airsom / Centre Prisme - Nora Golic
The Baluchons project took place between September 2024 and July 2025, in the borough of LaSalle. Its aim was to foster artistic creation, both individual and collective, and to encourage intercultural dialogue through accessible and inclusive practices.
Supported by Air-Som / Prisme, in collaboration with artists and cultural mediators, Baluchons offered a caring space where participants were invited to “drop off their baluchon” – their personal, emotional and cultural baggage – to open up to creation, listening and encounters with others.
This project has helped to strengthen cultural participation and the local social fabric, particularly among people who are sometimes far removed from traditional artistic practices.
Workshop 1: Creative writing “Our optimistic bundles!”
Objective: The aim of the workshop is to support each participant in the conception, through writing, of an idea that will be the driving force behind their entire project.
Artist Rossana Bruzzone
Workshop 2: Assembling and making “La boîte de soi” objects
Objective: to create an object symbolizing: moments, memories, possessions, achievements, loved ones or elements of identity from their life’s journey. Sometimes their migratory journey.
Carolina Hernandez-Hernandez, painter
Workshop 3: Sewing and embroidery, “Textile Amulet
Objective: to make an object that can be worn and to which one attributes the virtue of warding off evil or bringing good.
Artist: Sarabeth Triviño, textile artist
Workshop 4: Silkscreen and stencils on paper and textiles “Force Allochtone
Objective: to create a work based on the reflection of thought and the feeling of the migrant.
Artist: Julian Palma, muralist
Workshop 5 : Photographic composition and collage “Nostalgic Self-Portrait in Photography and Mixmedia”.
Objective: To explore nostalgia and self-portraiture through photography and mixmedia, enabling participants to express themselves artistically and reflect on their past.
Artist : Anabel Burin, photographer
Workshop 6: Introduction to paper sculpture “From introspection to projection!
Objective: reappropriate yourself, redo your portrait with an open or hidden face
Artist: Nora Golic, visual artist
These workshops took place on Saturday afternoons, at the rate of two consecutive workshops per month, with a break during the holiday season. This regular rhythm helped to establish a climate of trust, support a process of individual introspection and foster group cohesion.
Each session was conceived as a caring and creative interlude, where participants could experiment, exchange and develop their own artistic narratives.
The project culminated in a festive and convivial exhibition, showcasing the works produced and enabling a meaningful encounter with the public.
Safari Photo is a participatory experience where the execution of personal and collective creative projects serve to sensitize and involve young adults from immigrant backgrounds in valuing the use of French in order to develop their enduring interest in its protection and strengthen their sense of belonging. Through a series of inclusive, instructive and fun activities, this project will greatly facilitate the use of French as a common language, as a language of creation, among the participants, which, in turn, accelerates their integration.
With a popular education approach, Safari Photo aims to involve participants in every stage of the project. This process of exchanging knowledge and know-how should culminate in the production of a collective exhibition. At the end of the project, the process and photos will be shared at a public event.
PARTICIPANTS
Safari Photo is aimed at young adults aged 18 to 40+, newly arrived or in the process of linguistic integration, without discrimination as to sex, gender, education, socio-economic status, origin or provenance, language or beliefs. The target number of participants is between 24 and 30.
Also to artists, facilitators and long-time LaSalle residents.
OBJECTS
Promote and enhance the French language among young adults who have recently arrived or are in the process of linguistic integration, through creative activities and exchanges in French. Live the French experience through various means (introduction to photography, creative writing workshops, exhibition preparation, etc.). Facilitate the integration of people from immigrant backgrounds by encouraging them to overcome their fear of judgment or embarrassment at making mistakes, and by offering them ways to develop their skills and encourage them to use French as a common language.
GROUP EXHIBITION SAFARI PHOTO FOUS DU FRANÇAIS AT LASALLE
The group exhibition “Safari Photo” explores the relationship between space and people in Lasalle, highlighting diversity. Through more than 20 photographs, installations and creative texts in French, each participant has conveyed unique moments that reflect the harmony or contrast between man and his space. These images illustrate the richness of this relationship, whether it’s the integration of humans into urban landscapes, coexistence with nature or varied cultural interactions, offering a profound reflection on diversity and the invisible links that unite us with our environment.
