Tracing Coloniality: The Documentary Practice of Valérie Osouf

Nico Andreas Heller in Conversation with Valérie Osouf.

Valérie Osouf is a French documentary film maker and artist, and a leading voice in the migrant rights and social justice movement internationally.

She is currently working on a feature-length international documentary on human mobility, traversing five countries (UAE, Russia, Rwanda, China, and Canada) and in November will be shooting a nocturnal urban motorbike film in Kigali.

Whilst she has frequently crossed over into fine art practice, in 2021 she formally joined the artists’ collective School of Mutants and, since then, has exhibited widely also with them, including at The New Museum in Rotterdam, the Berlin Biennial of Contemporary Art, the Kaunas Biennial of Contemporary Art, and soon at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery in Leeds.

Neo-/Colonialism, France’s colonial history and decoloniality feature big in Valérie’s work. In this podcast we explore these themes further within the context of and in relation to her own practice as a French or European filmmaker and artist.

For more information about Valérie Osouf, visit her website at eng.valerieosouf.com.