ON VIEW THROUGH APRIL 18
Frictions brings together a new body of sculptures and collages by Nidhal Chamekh that explores history, cultural hybridity, and the tensions in inherited forms. Extending the inquiries initiated in his 2024 exhibition Et Si Carthage?, the works interrogate exisiting hierarchies that assign meaning and value to objects. Through reworked materials and images charged with historical and symbolic weight, Chamekh explore how dominant narratives and colonial legacies shape and distort our understanding of culture, memory, and identity.
About the Artist
Born 1985. Dahmani, Tunisia
Lives and works between Paris, France and Tunis, Tunisia
Nidhal Chamekh’s practice reflects on the times that we inhabit. Working across drawing, sculpture, and installations, his artwork is situated at the intersection of the biographic and the political, the lived and the historical, the event and the archive. His oeuvres dissect the constitution of our contemporary identity. Chamekh has developed a language that challenges history and politics in their broader sense. He performs his fragmentary research to convey an ambiguous atmosphere, shifting between the experience and the violence of the individual representation. He represents an imperceptible space between a silent violence mirroring an intimate experience of trauma, dissecting the constitution of our contemporary identity.
He graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Tunis and the University of Sorbonne in Paris. Between 2021 and 2022, he was a fellow at Villa Medici French Academy in Rome, Italy where his artistic project sought to introduce Rome’s archaeological heritage and the marginalized cultural production of the City’s exiles, in a process of montage where present and past are jointly defined.
Chamekh’s work has been shown in several international renowned institutions and biennials, including MAC the Museum of Contemporary art Lyon, France; The 12th edition of Bamako Encounters Photography Biennial (2019), Mali; Venice Biennial (2015), Italy; Aïchi Triennale (2016), Japan; Yinchuan Biennial, China; The Drawing Room, London, UK; Modern Art Oxford, UK; Skissernass Museum, Lund, Sweden; Frac Lorraine, France; Dream City Biennial, Tunis, Tunisia.
His works can be found in many prestigious collections of art, including FRAC Centre, Orléans, France; British Museum, London, U.K.; Blachère Foundation, France; Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, U.S.A.; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, UAE; Fondation H, Antananarivo, Madagascar; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, France; Centre National Des Arts Plastiques (CNAP), Paris, France; Fatma Kilani Collection, Tunis, Tunisia.
