Ismaïl Bahri
Dénouement

From September 6 to November 3, 2018
Opening on September 7 from 5 pm to midnight

As if on the periphery of the gaze, because often what commands our attention is located outside the frame, the work of Ismaïl Bahri, James Benning, Ralitsa Doncheva and Miriam Sampaio carefully documents the occupation of a site which, for reasons both personal and political, is the only witness, even the sole legatee, of past or future events, giving form to an exile either desired or imposed, permanent or temporary.

Dénouement (2011) shows an image with the appearance of a blank page, split in two by a black line agitated by small vibrations. Slowly, with minimal depth of field reduced to the centre of the image, a snowy landscape is revealed in which a standing figure in the distance is drawn towards us by a string. Gradually the background completely obliterates the space of the landscape, leaving only an image of string and hands overlapping. This final knot at the conclusion of Dénouement is a fine demonstration of how every representation contains unsuspected temporal spaces or hidden details – but can also infer that a rapprochement is possible between all things.

FC

The Franco-Tunisian artist Ismaïl Bahri, born in 1978, works in photography, video, installation and drawing. Through the simplicity of his gestures and the materials he uses, he pays particular attention to what is in the process of being carried out, to movements often imperceptible to the naked eye. His work offers experiences which destabilise our perception of the everyday. Ismaïl Bahri presently resides in Paris (France). His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including Frontiers at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon (Portugal), Soulèvements at the Jeu de Paume in Paris and Human Frames at the KIT – Kunst im Tunnel in Dusseldorf (Germany). His work has been the subject of solo shows at venues such as the Galerie des Filles du Calvaire in Paris, the Selma Feriani Gallery in Tunis (Tunisia) and the Jeu de Paume in Paris, where a major solo exhibition of his work entitled Instruments was recently mounted which will also be presented at the Espaço Cultural Porto Seguro in São Paulo. His work has been shown in several international film festivals.