In the 13th Biennial of Lyon, entitled “La vie Moderne”, photography is present through several creations, sometimes even just implied. As in this installation created specially for this occasion by the artist Mohamed Bourouissa, combining elements of automobile bodywork printed with traces of photographic images. It is on part of the mezzanine floor of La Sucrière, which is one of the three symbolic locations of the Biennial, along with the Musée d’Art Contemporain and the Musée des Confluences (not counting the associated outdoor sites).
The Curator of the Biennial, Ralph Rugoff, Director of London’s Hayward Gallery, stated that he wanted to explore the contradictory character of contemporary life in different regions of the world: “La vie Moderne is acutely attuned to the ways in which contemporary culture is the result of, and a response to, prior events and traditions. Even as the artists in the exhibition explore current situations and images, they are also burrowing into the past. Their work shows evidence of a real sensitivity to the links between various historical moments and the present, while often confronting us with unexpected connections that can spring up between them. Our relationship with the temporary is part of the very concept of a biennale.”
Mohamed Bourouissa spent part of 2014 living in the Northwest district of Philadelphia (USA) sharing the daily life of an equestrian community, a sort of Afro-American street riders’ club, riding their horses amongst the cars, as if they were playing cowboys in the urban environment of today…
Mohamed Bourouissa wanted to get two totally different, even contradictory, worlds to exist side by side, to combine the “riders” of Fletcher Street with artists, for a fictional contest. After months of preparation, during “Horse Day”, a day of competition organised specially for the occasion, they put on their parade clothes, made for them by the students of the town’s art school, and compete for trophies that were sculpted by the artist.
Mohamed Bourouissa, born in Blida (Algeria) in 1978, living and working in France, dexterously handles this art of displacement and re-composition, making the translation between opposing worlds, the pile-ups between different sides of the truth, creating here the illusion of fragments of urban life in Northwest, Philadelphia, reflected in the vehicles at the side of the street.
Since 2002, he has developed a method of photographic art and also drawing and video that he anchors firmly in social reality. Basically working around representations of a contemporary urban universe, the artist is interested in the geographical and societal spaces usually represented by clichés: the suburbs (Périphérique, 2005-2008), prison (Temps mort, 2009), television (la série Ecran, 2007).
EVENT
13th Biennial of Lyon
« Modern Life »
From September 10th, 2015 to January 3rd, 2016
La Sucrière
47-49 Quai Rambaud
69002 Lyon
France
http://www.lasucriere-lyon.com
http://www.biennaledelyon.com
