La dépossession

source: ilikethisartnet

PARIS, FR. Latifa Echakhch’s installations displace concrete understandings of habituated space. Her most recent exhibition at galerie kamel mennour, All around fades to a heavy sound, featured a curtain made of canvas, depicting an archetypal sky. As the fabric rolls out onto the gallery space, the perfect color blue is met with fluffy white clouds to greet the viewer. This installation accompanies two paintings of organically made ink blots, which are entitled The movement of steps slows down until perfect immobility and Arms opened and eyes closed, referring to a poetic and object constructed narrative. In a review of her exhibition in Art Daily, her work is described as, “Only when supposedly known objects have been emptied of their original meaning can they be read in new ways,” which an apt synopsis of Echakch’s methodology. Echakch’s objects appear as elements that through her translation of usage are able to hold meaning – while at the same time, they defer being understood in a literal manner, in this case, the sky is falling. This notion of story telling is one that she has considered through previous works, her carbon paper installations pointing toward the intersection between abstract art and politics, where the paper in the piece was also the material used to make underground newspapers, once used to pass on messages that would otherwise be intercepted. There is a sense of secrecy that abounds in the work, whether through hidden messages, or skewing familiar forms.

This installation harkens back to one done at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles in 2013, where Echakhch used carbon paper and phalo ink, both mediums in which information is passed on, to create an installation that encompassed the hallway of the museum. The colors are modern referents in art history, but also a widely used color – existing in the space between the expected and the unexpected. The title, À chaque stencil une révolution (For each stencil a revolution), is sourced from a quote by the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat when he spoke of protest movements of the 1960s and the instrumental role that the mimeograph machine served. Echakhch’s work discharges these symbolically loaded values through their formal aspects, as nothing besides the color is being communicated to the viewer. Though it seems like a didactic display, it also pictures a political history of abstraction. In another piece, entitled Untitled (Red ball and figure), Echakhch reinserts the use of Yves Klein Blue poetically and inadvertently, transforming two familiar symbols in modern art – the red ball and the blue monochrome canvas – as if it were a garment previously worn. As the curator, Anne Ellegood, states, “…in the 1950s, [abstract art] was used as a kind of propaganda tool to promote American values around the world.” All around fades to a heavy sound is no exception; whenever Echakhch uses a form, she uses it in such a way that it resists being understood one dimensionally.
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source: hammeruclaedu

Latifa Echakhch was born in El Khnansa, Morocco in 1974 and lives in Martigny, Switzerland. Eponymous exhibitions of her work have been presented at Portikus, Frankfurt am Main, Germany and Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switerland (2012); Museum Haus Esters, Kunstmuseen, Krefeld, Germany (2011); MACBA, Barcelona, Spain (2010); and Tate Mondern, London, England (2008). Her work has been featured in thematic exhibitions internationally, such as It is what it is. Or is it?, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (2012); ILLUMInations, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2011); 21st Century: Art in the First Decade, Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia (2010); Flow, Studio Museum Harlem, New York (2008); and Global Feminisms, Brooklyn Museum, New York and Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley, Massachusetts (2007).
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source: macbacat

Latifa Echakhch was born in Khnansa, Morocco, in 1974 and grew up and studied in France, where she had moved with her family at the age of three. She currently lives and works between Paris and Martigny, Switzerland. Strongly critical of the mechanisms of power and their effects on the identity of individuals, her sculptures and installations draw on objects from everyday life and cultural symbols that she decontextualises in order to explore globalised, postcolonial societies. Her work on the contemporary world, which also includes video and photography, often contains veiled references to artists and works from art history. She has exhibited her work at numerous solo and group shows around the world.
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source: absolutmarruecos

Marruecos ha dado a luz a muchos personajes importantes en una gran variedad de actividades. En cuanto al arte hay una mujer que se destaca; nos estamos refiriendo a Latifa Echakhch, una artista conceptual.

Latifa nació en la ciudad de Khnansa, Marruecos, en 1974, y desde muy pequeña, preciosamente a la edad de tres años, se mudó a Francia. Debe decirse que si bien su país de nacimiento es Marruecos, su formación y su desarrollo profesional se los debe a Francia, lugar donde vive. Paris y la ciudad de Martigny, Suiza, son los lugares donde ejerce su trabajo con mayor asiduidad, sin olvidar sus trabajos para Barcelona.

Sus obras tienen un tinte bastante posmoderno, criticas, por cierto, a las estructuras de la sociedad actual. Utiliza objetos de la vida cotidiana pero dándoles otro significado al descontextualizarlos, haciendo que surja una especie de choque entre el sentido sugerido por la artista y el sentido original de los elementos.

De esta forma trata de analizar la realidad de la globalización y como esta impacta en el desarrollo de la identidad de las personas. La mayoría de los objetos utilizados por Latifa Echakhch son propios del su país natal, Marruecos.
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source: artknowledgenews

Bielefeld, Alemanha – As obras de franco-marroquino artista Latifa Echakhch (nascido em 1974 em El Khnansa, Marrocos) estão girando para sempre em torno de questões de identidade cultural e como ele é retratado.

Em suas instalações, vídeos, objetos esculturais, intervenções e acontecimentos, que se referem a determinados locais, o artista muitas vezes se envolve com estereótipos e os códigos linguísticos, bem como mecanismos sociais de inclusão e exclusão. Latifa Echakhch integra objetos do cotidiano e materiais, trabalha sobre eles, deslocando-los em um contexto diferente e transferi-los de uma cultura para outro. Esses objetos, copos de chá marroquino, o açúcar, o carbono inútil papel, por exemplo, mas também documentos legais ou políticas, são muito importantes no caminho Echakhch de pratica sua arte. Abrem-se frequentemente uma dimensão de políticas sociais, fazendo o observador consciente do nosso tratamento de (arte), história focalizando o Ocidente, com a globalização, os acontecimentos políticos, com o nosso tratamento de símbolos nacionais, bem como os diferentes conceitos estéticos entre a culturas.

Desde 2005, Latifa Echakhch tem participou em várias exposições colectivas significativas e bienais. Mais recentemente, suas obras foram mostradas no contexto da »Manifesta 7«, Trento e do Sul Tyrol (2008), »Shifting Identities«, Kunsthaus Zürich (2008), »global Feminismos «Museum, Brooklyn, New York (2007) e no” 3. Tirana Biennale « (2005). As exposições individuais mais recentes foram montados em Paris (»Pendant que les champs brûlent «, Galerie Kamel Mennour), Londres (Canto» «Speakers ‘, Tate Moderno, Nível 2 Gallery, 2008) e Grenoble (»Il m’a tant fallu des Chemins derrame parvenir jusqu’à toi “, Le Magasin, 2007).