Born in 1971 in Senegal, Edi Fuema (invented name) made his journey to Europe 17 years ago.
After living
in Spain for ten years with his brother, where he obtained a residence permit,
he arrived in Switzerland in
2012. For the past nine years he has been earning his living by
collecting deposits on bottles and cups at
parties and festivals in and around Bern.
In the Bernese alternative scene, Edi is always welcome; he is
well known here.
People like him spend their lives under the society's radar and have neither the
reputation nor
the financial means to rent a permanent home.Nevertheless, he finds temporary places to
stay,
like squats or shared apartments.
A few months after my first contact with him, I found out that he
was looking for a family car
with lots of storage space and this piqued my curiosity; what did he have in
mind?
He had a lot of things he wanted to bring back to Dakar for his family and friends; bicycles, TVs,
microwaves, etc.,
and that‘s why he was looking for a car. Surprised, I listened to him telling me that he
had already
made about ten trips to his native country, as if the Senegalese capital was in the suburbs of
Geneva!
While this seemed to be a normal project for Edi, I was fascinated by the idea of covering this
vast geographical
and cultural distance by land and I proposed him to make a documentary about his
journey.
My motivation for making this photographic reportage is based on the fundamental question of
origin, identity and rootedness of beings. His destiny Edi shares with a large group of people who, in the
hope of better economic opportunities -
especially to support their family back home - have gone into
exile to earn a living as "migrant workers".
Through this project, I try to sensitize a wide public to this
individual destiny, which is representative
for many others.To protect Edi and not expose him, he will
remain anonymous in this story.
