The first edition of the De Renava art biennial opened on May 27 and is already full of promises for the future. Until November 6, this ambitious contemporary art event will take visitors on a journey through the historical landmarks of Bonifacio and around works by young artists from Corsica as well as major international players like Kara Walker and Anish Kapoor. The event grants the gorgeous, fortified city overlooking the Mediterranean from the walls of a nine hundred years-old citadel on top of the cliffs, with its very own international art biennial.

From the Capsule room dedicated to young Corsican artists to Nil Yalter, from Latifa Echakhch to Barry McGee, from Rineke Dijkstra to Sara Sadik, a variety of horizons open up for us, mostly in the form of video installations, to be followed along an indoor and outdoor trail throughout Bonifacio.

De Renava capitalizes on Bonifacio’s strategic location in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, on its complex history – the city was invaded from all corners throughout the ages – and bets on the city’s capacity to reach international relevance.

Kara Walker’s work, featuring black animated silhouettes thus perfectly fits in the dark rooms of the old building that used to separate the military compound from the rest of the upper town, and restrain public circulation.

The beauty of the surrounding nature and the historical layers of the local architecture frame the various horizons of the artists. Latifa Echakhch’s videos of the Moroccan port of Al Jadid shows teenagers playing on another fortress – risk-taking as essential to adolescence – in a room whose windows are blurred with blue paint, deeper than the sky and lighter than the sea. In the next room, Sara Sadik’s GTA-style video brings us even closer to teenage preoccupations, as we focus on young Zine going through the rollercoaster of overwhelming love and doubts. The act of sharing oneself appears a rite of transition to self-affirmation, strangely echoing the trans-voices of women in Nil Yalter’s video: “I am an artist”, “I come from Turkey, I am from France.”

On this much-invaded land, the curators chose hospitality over hostility, and opted to pervade the historically-closed architecture with open structures. The young Corsican architect Marion Valli and her team built beautiful wooden entrances throughout the city for the public to discover the exhibited works. The structures shelter Mélissa Epaminondi’s work in an open-air chapel and, side by side with the old buildings, they shine a new light on the local heritage and build bridges between the works of the guest artists and local productions. As we step into these places, safe in the knowledge that our exploration is free of any link to past military colonization, we enter a shared place of mental projection beyond the video projection. Inspiring horizons, shared experiences – both of mind and body –, visions of the past and hopes for the future all mingle in this fascinating ramble through the streets of Bonifacio.