L’Attente. 2017-2019.

L’Attente constitutes the second chapter of a cycle exploring the notion of borders—geographical, political, or symbolic—and their impact on individuals.

This work focuses on the Emergency Accommodation Center for Asylum Seekers (HUDA) in Peyrat-le-Château, in the Haute-Vienne region of France. In this small rural town of 1,000 inhabitants, nestled at the foot of the Millevaches plateau, a former holiday center hosts around forty young men awaiting the decision on their asylum applications. Depending on the length of the administrative process, some may remain there for up to two years.

Time seems suspended. These young men have left behind their country, their lives, their histories. Yet, not knowing whether they will be allowed to stay in France, they cannot project themselves into an uncertain future.

The project explores the temporal dimension of the border: the experience of the border does not end with crossing a geographical line; it continues through administrative procedures and, more specifically, through the prolonged waiting associated with obtaining refugee status.

To reflect this complex experience, the project brings together different types of images: portraits, scenes from daily life, objects from everyday routines, as well as excerpts from rejection letters issued by the OFPRA (French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons). This approach reveals both the human, intimate, and material dimensions of this waiting, as well as the administrative obstacles that shape daily life. Between suspension and hope, the HUDA concretely reveals the effects of borders on everyday life and on the ability to imagine a future.