Musician Faconnier Benjamin

Benjamin Faconnier & the Papillon Project: Afropean music, transborder identities, and decolonization of stages

Taiteellinen työ / siihen pohjautuva työ | Yksivuotinen

This project is over all, about transcendence and love. It is a commitment from me to life, a means to say that I exist; and my way of existing is to create and perform meaningful art. In a decolonial approach, I aim to musically unify elements that characterize my Afropean identity. I am a French-Reunionese trumpet player, singer and composer living in Finland, and wish to bring together Nordic jazz and the music of my ancestors, Maloya, through a transnational collaboration (Finnish, French-Reunionese and South African musicians). It is to me, extremely relevant to link (Nordic) Jazz and Maloya, because these two musics are made of the same essence: they embody the emancipation of the oppressed, a quest for freedom and the desire to live. In the current context, in which we witness everywhere growing nationalism, discrimination and social protests, it is of paramount importance to bring to the fore a message of respect and inclusion, of collaboration and cultural metissage, and I think that art is a strong way to express all that, in order to cross all kinds of boundaries. The final result of this year-long work will consist in having enough material and connections, in order to record the second album of the Papillon project. Papillon means Butterfly in French. The butterfly is the embodiment of evolution, emancipation, and metamorphosis.