From 20 September to 07 October 2023
An exhibition presented by Nadine Fattouh at
35 rue de Lille, 75007 Paris
Opening hours
From Tuesday to Saturday
From 14:00 to 19:00
About the Exhibition
Sometimes, like a magnifying glass, art can highlight the contradictions and dysfunctions of our contemporary societies. Faced with ourselves, we then have the choice of either ignoring the questions it raises or dwelling on them. But when the artist does so with humor, when he manages to seduce us, our laughter is an admission of weakness. We can still pretend to ignore the subtext, but a trace of it always remains in the back of our minds. This is the challenge of EYE to EYE, a series of artworks by the artist Fares Cachoux.
Cachoux has lived and worked for almost 10 years for various museums in the United Arab Emirates and Doha (Qatar). Observing a world in black and white (the black of the niqab for women and the white of the thobe for men), he took a humorous look at how these traditional societies functioned. The series, EYE to EYE, was born from this journey, in reference to the only visible part of a woman behind her niqab, the only access to the person as a unique individual and not as an interchangeable number belonging to the group. POP colors and apparent lightness characterize these works, which nonetheless raise profound questions inherent in all modern societies in search of a balance between “local traditions”, the consumer society and unbridled globalization.
These issues include patriarchy, which affects the East as much as the West, and communication. In the case of the niqab, how can we establish a simple, authentic and effective dialogue with a person whose face and expressions we cannot see? All societies have more or less experienced this difficulty, during the pandemic and the obligation to wear a face mask.
As well as the question of communication, there is also the question of identity, which affects everyone who wears a face mask, a costume or a uniform, whether religious or professional. What does a uniform say about us, and what does it hide?
And what if what it hides is the exact opposite of the rigor, austerity and uniformity it conveys? This is how Fares Cachoux's veiled women become triumphant motorcyclists, Marvel heroines or indomitable rockers, expressing in turn their mischievousness, their strength and their desire for freedom, and embodying in the process the paradoxes and complexities of Eastern societies.
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Contact:
Cristina Falco falco.cristina@gmail.com
Basel Jbaily baseljbaily@hotmail.com