The Exil of the Soul
The Exil of the Soul
Exil der Seele
L’Exil de l’Âme
Art installation presented during the Kunstpunkte 2023 in Düsseldorf, Germany
Photos
Haram, Verboten
Photo on transparent paper
42* 59,5
Silence
Photo on transparent paper
42*59,5
(Ma) Mort
Photo on transparent paper
42*42
Sewn Panel Words
حرام, ḥarām – Sinful, "prohibited"
صمت, silence
قتلي , ma mort
Explanation
The Arabic word ghorba has another root
The word gharib which means to be foreign or to feel strange/strangled, uprooted, an uprooting, one of the appropriations of the subject.
The Word Soul
رُوح ( rouh) in Arabic comes etimologically from the word wind and means spirit or ghostly being but also means by extension, life spark of life and also breath of life.
To Each work is linked to a label on which are sewn the words: Haram, forbidden.
Silence and (My) Death are like a redundancy of ills to words, a reinforcement and insistence, then by rhyme, never to leave the one that still imposes silence. A connection or, on the contrary, a detachment.
Exil does not mean only homesickness. It poses the Identity problem but explains this detachment, the uprooting of the soul. This installation, made during the Kunstpunkte in 2023, was originally called "The Common Pain": it is to talk about violence against women and sudden pressure in a conservative family, society where I grew up. But now that I think about it, I'd call it The Exil of the Soul. Feeling like a body and a stranger in territory, confronted with the various and varied situations of violence suffered by women.