artSümer is happy to announce its participation in Senkron, which focuses on video art in Turkey with simultaneous events taking place between 15-30 April. The gallery will feature two videos of Algerian-born French artist Fayçal Baghriche, titled Labor Market (2003) and Philippe (2008).
In "Labor Market" (2003), we witness a scene in the subway. The metro car, a contemporary manifestation of the agora, is a captivating public space that moves with its audience and for the person who wants to convey a message. This scene is often used by people who are in need of help, lack income or choose a marginal lifestyle. Due to the difficulty of finding a paid job, the artist tries to take advantage of this scene to offer his services.
In "Philippe" (2008), the artist places a plastic mannequin with a Tutankhamun mask on its face, wrapped in gold fabric, in front of the Louvre Museum in Paris. Tourists take photos and leave money in front of the "actor" who they think is making a live sculpture performance.
These two works, shown consecutively and both featuring the artist himself, offer us two different perspectives on the delicate situation of unemployment in urban life. While there is an effort to be recruited into this system in the first video, an attempt to create your own system is contemplated in the second.
Fayçal Baghriche (1972) was born in Skidda, Algeria. He studied at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts de La Villa Arson before moving to Paris where currently lives and works. In addition to the diplomas of fine arts and plastic expression, Baghriche has a Bachelor’s degree in performing arts from UFR des Sciences et Lettres, Nice Sophia, Antipolis and a master’s degree in multimedia - hypermedia from the School of Fine Arts, Paris.
His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions in France and abroad. Among the most recent solo exhibitions include Le Shed, Centre d’Art de Normandie, France (2017), Human Resources, Los Angeles (2014); The Delfina Foundation, London (2012); Bielefelder Kunstverein, Bielefelder, Germany (2010); Centre d’Art Contemporain, Le Quartier, Quimper (2010).
His work has also been included in the Dakar Biennale, Senegal (2014); Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2012), Triennale of Sorocoba, Brazil. Baghriche was involved in the 54th Venice Biennial (2011) as part of the first pan-Arab pavilion, The Future of a Promise.
Other group exhibitions featuring his work were at Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2018), Villa Arson, Nice (2017), Centro Pecci, Prato (2017), Malmö Konstmuseum, Sweden (2017); Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City (2016); Arab Image Foundation, Beirut (2016), The Mosaics Rooms, London (2014); Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2012); and Musée d’Art Moderne d’Alger, Algeria (2010).
His works are in the collections of Collection du Musée National d’Art Moderne / Centre Georges Pompidou, France; Centre National des Arts Plastiques, France; Fond Régional d’Art Contemporain du Poitou-Charentes, France; Conseil Général de la Seine Saint-Denis, France; Nadour Collection, Germany; Collection of the European Central Bank, Frankfurt; Barjeel Art Foundation, UAE; Zayed National Museum, Abu Dhabi.
