Mohamed Bourouissa heads to the theatre

In collaboration with Numéro art

Mohamed Bourouissa questions the respective spaces given to dominant and dominated social groups, both in globalized market exchanges and in mass media representations. The 40-something star of contemporary art, who is represented by kamel mennour and whose work is exhibited in major museums around the world, is also renowned for his music. He has recently been invited by the Théâtre de Gennevilliers near Paris to take over the space for the next three years with cross-disciplinary projects combining exhibitions and concerts.

In the age of ‘inclusiveness’, which often serves as a tool to jockey for space in the market or improve one’s image under the guise of ethical concerns, it is worth examining Bourouissa’s work and vision in order to shed light on the real and profound issues at stake when using that word. Born in Blida, Algeria in 1978 and raised in France in Courbevoie, Hauts-de-Seine, the artist studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and at Le Fresnoy in Tourcoing, France.

From 2005 to 2008, he developed a series of photographs that became legendary; ‘Périphérique’ focuses on his friends and acquaintances in the Parisian banlieues, where they usually hang out. In order to bring these marginalized people into the field of vision of respectable and legitimate society, the artist puts his models in situations where some kind of unresolved tension often takes shape, deploying the compositional codes of great history painting. More impactful than a long speech, the majestic images reverse the stigmatizing representations of the ‘people from the banlieues’ broadcast by mass media all day long. Awarded first prize at the Rencontres Internationale de la Photographie, Le Off in Arles, France, the series has recently been published, along with new photographs, by Loose Joints. Then, after a magnificent exhibition at the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris in 2018, Virgil Abloh gave Bourouissa the opportunity to create a Louis Vuitton campaign in 2019: ‘I accepted the offer because it was Virgil. He brought a breath of fresh air to fashion by opening doors, and thanks to him, some things have evolved today. Maybe not in society at large, but in the fields of image, art direction, and representation for sure.’

In addition to photography, Bourouissa also expresses himself through other media, such as drawing, sculpture, video, installations, and more recently, music and sound design. He was nominated for the Prix Marcel Duchamp in 2018, and his artworks are displayed in the collections of important museums like Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and both the Centre Pompidou and the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris. Bourouissa’s art implies renegotiating and rethinking the respective positions taken by the artist and his ‘subjects’ in each new project, whether that is the video Temps mort (2009), made with inmates of a penitentiary in order to document their daily lives, his video Horse Day (2014–2015), which includes the African American riders of the Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club in Philadelphia, or with the community in Gennevilliers, where he lives. Distrustful of vertical relationships, the curbing of speech, and the authority that is immediately granted to any artist expressing themselves within ‘legitimate’ culture, the Franco-Algerian is more inclined to collaborate with people after spending a long immersion period with them, than to impose his own discourse.

As a guest artist at the Théâtre de Gennevilliers, he has exhibited his photographs there and invited local musicians and rappers to take part in several events. ‘It’s important for me to remain close to the people. My art is conceptual, but it is grafted onto many contexts. I build long-term relationships with my collaborators over time.’ Resistant to any kind of demagogy or simplification, the artist formulates complex questions, especially on the status of plants, that he translates into music. His research on plants and their electrical activity is part of a thought process on the fate of all living organisms within a system of globalized commercial exchanges: ‘In order to understand globalization, which implies the idea of land appropriation, we must take colonization into account. The colonial issue is very much present, but my work goes well beyond that.’ Mohamed Bourouissa practices the art of nuance – a quality that makes his work crucial right now.

This article is part of a yearlong collaboration between Paris+ par Art Basel and Numéro art. Click here for the original article.