Organising a seminar with Makan Fofana on the Encyclopédie du Turfu

On 18 September 2021, Makan Fofana, the author of La Banlieue du Turfu, published an article outlining his next book, L'Encyclopédie du Turfu. In it, he expressed the need to confront his experience of imagination with the theoretical thinking of several authors, and to free himself from the injunction to act to which his work is too often reduced. A little more than a year later, on 18 February 2023, we organised with him, in partnership with the Épokhè association, an afternoon to discuss the first ideas of this book.

Makan Fofana's work builds poetic stories that escape the usual images of the French suburbs, where imaginaries turn pessimistic and inward-looking and the only hope would be to leave. He reflects on how we project ourselves into the future, on inner enchantment and on the very personal bonds we form with our surroundings.

He draws links between the shaping of an imagination and the objects humans make, music, video games, films or books, all of them media through which the mind projects itself as it takes shape. Bernard Stiegler, whom he had met, had recognised in his “turfu” a kinship with his own distinction between the future and becoming. Convinced that these questions could enrich each other, we suggested reading passages from their texts together and discussing them as a group. We organised the preparatory meetings, the choice of texts and readings, and the event itself at the IRI, and we designed its poster.