Koussouf
Hasnae El Ouarga
09.02 – 15.04.2023
By questioning these mental images that are the photographs, Hasnae El Ouarga undertakes a work of deconstruction that gives space to the unconscious and the resurgence of unexpected memories. In this process of anamnesis, the stone as a natural element becomes the vector of an inaccessible and ever present past, like a storyteller of forgotten stories. Placed directly on the paper, it interacts with the sun’s rays and imbues the medium with an enigmatic significance. In a process close to alchemy, the stone symbolises the transcendent dialogue between earth and sky through time and space. It is the very witness of a world in the making and of the cyclical metamorphosis of matter whose surfaces hold the echoes of a multifaceted past.
Guided by natural light, Hasnae El Ouarga’s creation is carried out in accordance with an external intention where chance reveals intimate reminiscences. Between appearance and disappearance, the celestial cyanotypes reproduce a cyclical rhythm like the solar eclipse – Koussouf. In this photographic process, freed from any device, the process finds a meditative and initiatory value, instilling a spiritual aspect into the creation. Emanating from a repetitive process, cadenced by the anticipation and patience spread over a year of residencies at Jardin Rouge, Hasnae El Ouarga’s work opens up our minds to the resurgence of contingent images and invites us to a subjective reading. Like abstract stars, Hasnae El Ouarga’s works evoke an intimate cosmogony where the irrevocable past and the uncertain future converge in the narrative of an ethereal elsewhere.
Presented from February 09 to April 15, 2023 at La Galerie des Résidents.