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"Somalia" questions the indifference and lethargy of nations when confronted to a civil war in a poor country. It was conceived specially for Siggraph - the mecca of computer images and digital tools - whose participants prefer 3D glowyness and virtuality to images testifying of a more real and more dirty reality.
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This teleperformance happened between Paris/La Villette and the Electronic Café booth in Siggraph Chicago (1992) at the request of Kit Galloway & Sherrie Rabinowitz. The idea came from a journalist’s commentary heard on France Inter about Somalia, a country devastaetd at the moment by a fratricide war : " Somalia is virtually not on the map anymore » !
Reworked images on color barshave been transmitted (via RNIS & Picture Tel). They were supposed to be sent by italian astronaut Tognini, who had a priviliged observation spot from the orbital station to testify about the reality of the planet. They were Images of misery, slave-kids living on bumps, familiar to the media.
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For the LOL : After the plot was introduced, tha tramisssion of the images started. Kit has to stop it at the request of a Canal + TV crew who prefered shooting " a guy who was drawing a banana in another guy’s tree" in split-screen. End of the show, poor Somalia !