Q&A by DOBSON
Q : Your Instagram account is quite provided and its content is very varied. We can perceive different phases, different inspirations. Everything remains extremely coherent: how would you define, first, the shape of your work?
A : My work is very instinctive and unconscious. So, when I start a collage I do not know what it will look like in the end. In fact it is the images that decide for me.
That may be why my creations are so varied.
Q : Then, how do you define the bottom? Let me explain: your achievements convey a culture, at least a cultural whole (fashion, aesthetics, social issues of a generation); what constitutes it?
A : I am Algerian, so I had an oriental education that influenced me a lot. Especially on the relation to the female body. The modesty of the oriental woman in the outer life and on the contrary, this liberation of the body once hidden by the walls of the hammam. This is perhaps why I often hide the eyes of women in my collages ... In the end It's a game of hide and seek. An erotic modesty. Instagram is also the origin of this desire to show, to provoke. But the forbidden push to reveal while hiding. It's more interesting as well. African culture by its colors, patterns ... is also very present in my work. There is a magic side that attracts me.
Q : You were a graphic designer and then artistic director for Ralph Lauren. Now you're freelance, you travel and you develop your jewelry brand. As such, your journey suggests that you feed two things: freedom and curiosity. Was it a plan, a certainty, that you were leaving the workforce for your own creations? Or is it a succession of stages that you only react to?
A : I never planned my career (nor staff). I have always followed opportunities that allowed me to live experiences as an employee who have all been very rewarding both professionally and humanly. They gave me the courage to start freelancing and a path less "traced". And as you say very well, there are two things I learned that are very dear to me, freedom and curiosity, hence my taste for travel.
Q : What are for you the key moments of your artistic life?
A : The key moments of my artistic life are all the journeys that I could make and the people I met, attitudes observed, discussions .... I am very permeable to what surrounds me.
Q : Is there a particular event or encounter, a discovery, that has spawned the direction you took?
A : All my encounters as well Human, visual, musical ... make me evolve in the directions I take.
Q : Do you target a particular goal; is it already reached, or do you live all this day-to-day?
A : My main goal is to continue to enjoy what I do.
This is always the case so yes, everything evolves from day to day.
