Diplôme Supérieur d’Arts Appliqués Lyon

École Supérieure d’Arts Appliqués La Martinière Diderot

Mingle with Your Neighbors’ Onions

Bella BATES

There is currently a border crisis between France and England : globalisation has erased all our differences, BREXIT is building political barriers and COVID-19 has cut off all physical relations.

The Franco-English union is the space in between, that is to say the sea, which brings together and invites the inhabitants of both coasts to invent or rediscover the singular links that connect them.

How can the sea, a vast geographical expanse, narrate the history of these two populations, now separated by political procrastination?

Mêles-toi des oignons de tes voisins / Mingle with Your Neighbors’ Onions spatially translates the story of the Johnnies. These pink onion farmers from northern Brittany who, at the end of the harvest, left for England by bike wearing striped tops and berets to sell their surplus. We follow their path from Meneham beach, France to West Bay, England, discovering all the facets of this culture, of this heritage of exchanges and relationships forged over time.