The Smiler (2022)
The man with a broad smile portrayed in this video is Massamba Seve. In the voice-over, he talks about his dreams: a beautiful house with all the trimmings such as a bathroom, a kitchen and a garden; a place where he can invite his friends. He likes poetry and writes
music. He loves the snow and has ambitions to be a theatre or film actor.
The man behind the smile fled Senegal. His situation is dire. He is currently being held in a detention centre between Morocco and Spain. He constantly tries to avoid the attention of the Moroccan police. Artist Adrian Melis asked Massamba to keep smiling indefinitely.
His increasingly unnatural smile eventually starts to reveal the reality of his inner world behind the cheerful facade. Seve cannot maintain his act-de-presence. As the video progresses, we witness the discomfort and fatigue start to show. Although his dream of hearth
and home appears to be within his grasp, the mundane reality of his situation is just as fragile as his smile.