France has, via Guyana, a common border with Brazil, it also has a common History : the first French colony which settled in the State of Rio de Janeiro on the Antarctic island, from 1565 to 1570. It is also a group of French artists who, at the invitation of the Portuguese ambassador, participated in the creation of the Academy of Fine Arts in Rio. What are the traces of these relationships today ? During the 20th century, many Brazilian intellectuals and artists made the opposite route to flee the dictatorship and find refuge in France. These data lead us to reflect on the notion of historic crossing. The project is linked to the context of the cities of Rio, Bordeaux and La Rochelle, open to the Atlantic. In La Rochelle, the Museum of the New World keeps a panoramic wallpaper produced in 1830 by Zuber manufacture in Alsace. This wallpaper pattern is still reproducible today (entitled "Views of Brazil). The same model is visible in the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rio, the Itamarati Palace. This formal element leads us to analyze by mirror effect and in a trans-historical way, metaphors of colonial enterprise. In France, the wallpaper is very well preserved. In Rio, gaping holes and stains produced by humidity dot the image. Past colors accentuate this impression of obsolescence, like a metaphor. Working with printed or painted archives re-used by two contemporary artists from Brazil and France, the project will deal with colonial inheritances.