{"id":105816,"date":"2021-02-22T18:57:16","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T17:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/?p=105816"},"modified":"2021-02-24T14:35:56","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T13:35:56","slug":"dalila-dalleas-bouzars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/2021\/02\/22\/dalila-dalleas-bouzars\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing light and liberation: Dalila Dall\u00e9as Bouzar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cMy goal has been to bring light to the center of my artistic practice and a spiritual dimension. I would like to share this light with others.\u201d This is how the Algerian-born, France-based artist Dalila Dall\u00e9as Bouzar (born 1974) describes her practice. Trained at Beaux-Arts de Paris, she took up the challenge of figurative painting, which was not the mainstream at that time. Since then painting has become the arena for her ongoing research into femininity and patterns of dominations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dalila
Dalila Dall\u00e9as Bouzar, Untitled, Ma demeure series, oil on linen, 60 x 50 cm, 2018. Courtesy of Dalila Dall\u00e9as Bouzar – C\u00e9cile Fakhoury gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Identity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Identity is simultaneously a universal and intimate topic. Many artists and non-artists are exploring identity as a way to express their personal history and perspectives. In the case of Dalila Dall\u00e9as Bouzar, her work circles around an identity marked by memory and violence, which somewhat subvert it. Being Algerian and having grown up in France, she says of herself: \u201cI am more than others confronted with this question of identity. I recognize myself in the idea of \u200b\u200bHomi Bhabha<\/a>, who speaks of \u2018the identity of the interstice and the third space\u2019.\u201d She also remarks: \u201cIn my biography, there is a degree of discontinuity in the Algerian culture I gained. Certain things were not conveyed to me by my parents, whether it\u2019s memory or tradition.\u201d [1] Thus, the artist uses this void to activate memory and knowledge, which she nourishes with her own current reflections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is also why self-portrait<\/a> has become a central subject in Dalila\u2019s practice\u2014 she is interested in the flesh of the body and questions of liberation through memory, for instance in her performance Ritual of displacement of bodies and Innerpast<\/em> and her series of drawings Algeria Year 0<\/em>. For Dalila Dall\u00e9as Bouzar, the body is closely linked to identity as she paints self-portraits and other portraits on skin-coloured canvas, spending much effort in making the paint as similar to the subjects\u2019 skins as possible. In her philosophy, \u201cthe notion of the body as a vehicle also makes me think of the body as a surface of memory, which consequently carries and transmits memory.\u201d [2]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dalila
Dalila Dall\u00e9as Bouzar, Inner past, performance, 2016. Courtesy of Dalila Dall\u00e9as Bouzar – C\u00e9cile Fakhoury gallery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From colonial powers to patriarchy<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dalila Dall\u00e9as Bouzar’s work on the links between colonialism and patriarchy also stems from a reflection on identity. She believes that the denied identity of colonised people, from whom everything was being taken, was unquestionably part of the ideological weapons of the domination. On the consequence of colonialism on Algerian identity, she says: \u201cAs a result of the acculturation driven by colonial rule, there\u2019s a real lack of culture in Algeria and with respect to cultural memory, it\u2019s a glaring problem.\u201d[3] The artist claims that patriarchy is a system based on domination and materialism (ownership and the importance of the object), while colonialism is the exacerbated product of the patriarchal system. It creates a context where responsibility is denied, where freedom is withdrawn in order to keep the human in a form of childishness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dalila
Dalila Dall\u00e9as Bouzar, Untitled, from Ma demeure series, 2018, oil on linen, 60 x 50 cm, 2018. Courtesy of Dalila Dall\u00e9as Bouzar – C\u00e9cile Fakhoury gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Dalila
Dalila Dall\u00e9as Bouzar, from the Princesses series, 2016, oil on linen canvas, 60×50 cm. Ph: Photo Gregory Copitet. Courtesy of Dalila Dall\u00e9as Bouzar – C\u00e9cile Fakhoury gallery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This link between colonialism and patriarchy is visible in her series of portraits titled Princesses<\/em>, in which each of 12 Algerian women are painted on a black background gazing back at the viewer. The images are based on Marc Garanger\u2019s photographic campaign during the Algerian War<\/a>. Dalila explains that \u201cDelacroix\u2019s Femmes d\u2019Alger<\/em>, like Marc Garanger\u2019s photographs at the origin of my series Princesses<\/em>, both raise the question of the double submission to the coloniser and to patriarchy.\u201d [4] The Princesses<\/em> portraits seem to subvert the male gaze in classical Western painting, which is directly a representation of the patriarchal oppression. According to Dalila Dall\u00e9as Bouzar, men\u2019s relationship with the world is fragile and inseparable from that with women: \u201cThe system of male domination modifies this relationship, by assigning women the position of subject vitally dependant on men, even going so far as to brainwash women so that they only see themselves through the prism of the male gaze.\u201d [5] The subversion of the male gaze in Princesses<\/em> is a way to revolt against both colonial and patriarchal violence at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n