Mémoire promise #3
2016 - Drawing & Print (Drawing & Print)
70 x 100 cm
Nidhal Chamekh
Nidhal Chamekh made the first drawings of the ongoing series Mémoire Promise in 2013. In the series, the artist persistently dissects, examines and describes his experiences and memories of his family and life in Tunis, Tunisia. As underlined by poet Arafat Sadallah, the artist draws eyes and gazes of unachieved portraits, hands and arms of a skeleton—figures disappear but they witness and testify. In writing on the work Sadallah writes: “Life is unachievable, infinite, torn. However at moments broken, ruptured. And through these ruptures and breaks give promise to a gift of sight and the possibility to witness, to be present in the world as a witness to … what exactly? What, who and where do we witness? Perhaps one can only witness the suspense of the question.” The Mémoire Promise series questions the role of the artist as witness.
Based between his native Tunis and Paris, Nidhal Chamekh’s work is an investigation into history as a point of access to our contemporary times. Drawing on both biography and politics, his work takes the form of drawing, installation, photography and videos. His drawings demonstrate a technique that is perpetually developed and challenged through his employment of a variety tools including pencil, brush, bread, charcoal and sponge. Despite the experimental application method, his execution is precise in its pursuit to replicate and observe reality. His line, essentially fragmented, draws on all eras and confuses spaces and cultures. We could consider his work as a sampler of the chaos of history developing cross-sections of this chaos and constituting a kind of social and cultural archaeology that renders the historical complexity of images perceptible.
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Léon Wuidar at White Cube Hong Kong – ARTOMITY 藝源 Léon Wuidar / Jan 17 – Mar 16, 2024 / White Cube Hong Kong / 50 Connaught Road, Central / Hong Kong / +852 2592 2000 / Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 7pm / whitecube.com Marking the artist’s inaugural show in Asia, White Cube is pleased to present a solo exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Léon Wuidar (b...
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Robert Courtright — Recovered time — Dutko / Quai Voltaire Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Robert Courtright — Recovered time — Dutko / Quai Voltaire Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Previous Next Robert Courtright — Recovered time Exhibition Collage, painting Robert Courtright Robert Courtright Recovered time Ends in 27 days: February 1 → March 9, 2024 Dutko Gallery is pleased to present, from February 1st to March 9th, 2024, the first retrospective exhibition on the American artist Robert Courtright (1926-2012) in Paris...
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Nidhal Chamekh
2019Nos visages ( Our Faces ) continues Nidhal Chamekh’s research around visual souvenirs of figures of the past and the light they might shed on our contemporary era...
© » KADIST
Nidhal Chamekh
2016Nidhal Chamekh made the first drawings of the ongoing series Mémoire Promise in 2013...
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Witnessing is political: Picking off new shoots will not stop the spring | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints March 3, 2022 By Chu May Paing (1,532 words, 6-minute read) Witness (noun) 1 : attestation of a fact or event : testimony 2 : one that gives evidence specifically : one who testifies in a cause or before a judicial tribunal 3 : one asked to be present at a transaction so as to be able to testify to its having taken place 4 : one who has personal knowledge of something 5 : something serving as evidence or proof – Merriam-Webster Dictionary When I think about the word “witness” in English, I feel a sense of passivity: one being interpellated into seeing or being in the presence of an event unfolding in proximity of their own body (or mind)...
