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Lot Essay
L’art de Lalla Essaydi est influencé par son expérience de femme arabe, élevée dans un foyer musulman de Marrakech, au Maroc. Son travail dépeint des femmes posant dans des décors ornementés entièrement créés par Essaydi. Elle photographie des femmes, dont le regard sensuel fixe par moment l’appareil photo. « Traditionnellement, la présence des hommes définit les espaces publics : les rues, les lieux de rendez-vous, les lieux de travail », écrit Essaydi. « Les femmes, d’un autre côté, ont été confinées dans les espaces privés, dans l’architecture des maisons ». « Dans mes photographies, je restreints les femmes à ces espaces, leurs espaces propres, cloisonnés par des murs et contrôlés par des hommes » poursuit-elle. Ses photographies reflètent l’iconographie orientaliste de la peinture du 19ème siècle, alors que les femmes du Moyen-Orient et d’Afrique du Nord étaient sexualisées dans ces portraits de la société occidentale. Plutôt que de regarder son travail d’après un regard masculin, Essaydi veut que ses photographies soient observées comme des fantaisies et non comme la réalité.
Christie’s 11.11.2020 : ‘Mon travail va au-delà de la culture Islamique et invoque la fascination de la culture occidentale, comme dans la peinture, avec les odalisques, les voiles et, évidemment, les harems. Les images des harems et odalisques imprègnent encore l’actualité et j’utilise le corps de la femme pour bousculer cette tradition. Je veux que le regardeur prenne conscience de l’Orientalisme comme projection des fantaisies sexuelles des artistes masculins occidentaux – autrement appelé tradition du voyeurisme’ Lalla Essaydi.
Lalla Essaydi’s art draws from her experiences as an Arab woman who grew up in a traditional Muslim household in Marrakech, Morocco. Her work depicts women posing in ornate sets that Essaydi creates from scratch. She photographs the women, who sometimes stare sensually directly into the lens of the camera. “Traditionally, the presence of men has defined public spaces: the streets, the meeting places, the places of work,” Essaydi writes in her artist’s statement. “Women, on the other hand, have been confined to private spaces, the architecture of the home. ”In my photographs, I am constraining the women within space and also confining them to their ‘proper’ place, a place bounded by walls and controlled by men,” she continues. The photographs reflect the orientalist iconography popularized in 19th century paintings, when women in the Middle East and North Africa were portrayed as highly sexualized to Western societies. Rather than looking at her work with a male gaze, Essaydi wants people to be aware that the images they see are a fantasy, not real life.
Christie’s 11.11.2020 : ‘My work reaches beyond Islamic culture to invoke the Western fascination, as expressed in painting, with the odalisque, the veil, and, of course, the harem. Here is another way in which my work cannot be read simply as a critique of Arab culture. Images of the harem and the odalisque still penetrate the present and I sue the Arab female body to disrupt that tradition. I want the viewer to become aware of Orientalism as a projection of the sexual fantasies of Western male artists - in other words as a voyeuristic tradition.’ - Lalla Essaydi.
Christie’s 11.11.2020 : ‘Mon travail va au-delà de la culture Islamique et invoque la fascination de la culture occidentale, comme dans la peinture, avec les odalisques, les voiles et, évidemment, les harems. Les images des harems et odalisques imprègnent encore l’actualité et j’utilise le corps de la femme pour bousculer cette tradition. Je veux que le regardeur prenne conscience de l’Orientalisme comme projection des fantaisies sexuelles des artistes masculins occidentaux – autrement appelé tradition du voyeurisme’ Lalla Essaydi.
Lalla Essaydi’s art draws from her experiences as an Arab woman who grew up in a traditional Muslim household in Marrakech, Morocco. Her work depicts women posing in ornate sets that Essaydi creates from scratch. She photographs the women, who sometimes stare sensually directly into the lens of the camera. “Traditionally, the presence of men has defined public spaces: the streets, the meeting places, the places of work,” Essaydi writes in her artist’s statement. “Women, on the other hand, have been confined to private spaces, the architecture of the home. ”In my photographs, I am constraining the women within space and also confining them to their ‘proper’ place, a place bounded by walls and controlled by men,” she continues. The photographs reflect the orientalist iconography popularized in 19th century paintings, when women in the Middle East and North Africa were portrayed as highly sexualized to Western societies. Rather than looking at her work with a male gaze, Essaydi wants people to be aware that the images they see are a fantasy, not real life.
Christie’s 11.11.2020 : ‘My work reaches beyond Islamic culture to invoke the Western fascination, as expressed in painting, with the odalisque, the veil, and, of course, the harem. Here is another way in which my work cannot be read simply as a critique of Arab culture. Images of the harem and the odalisque still penetrate the present and I sue the Arab female body to disrupt that tradition. I want the viewer to become aware of Orientalism as a projection of the sexual fantasies of Western male artists - in other words as a voyeuristic tradition.’ - Lalla Essaydi.