Amaury Hauchard

Amaury Hauchard (France, 1994) is a journalist. After graduating from Sciences Po, he moved to Central Africa, where he became a correspondent for Agence France Presse. He then became the Sahel correspondent for AFP, before going freelance again to tell a different story. A first-hand witness to political developments in a dozen or so French-speaking African countries, his work highlights the banal normality of life in changing societies. Rather than seeking out the invisible front lines in low-intensity conflicts, he tries to convey the emotions, joys and sorrows of those who live in vitiated ecosystems. Today, he lives between N’Djamena and Marseille.

After ten years of covering situations of conflict and political breakdown, Amaury Hauchard will begin a residency at Villa Medici to investigate the search for peace as a dynamic object. Convinced that peace is a process and not an end in itself, and that the belligerents in a conflict will always end up sitting down and talking, he will explore the possibility of re-enchantment through dialogue. This research into those who prepare for peace, which will form part of a novelistic project, will combine a certain taste for real-life adventure, the journeys of this community of optimistic fates, and several intertwined situations Amaury has witnessed in the Sahel and Sahara.