Video Interview by BAL Productions, Interview by Mara Satore, Filmed & Edited by Peter Cairns in Dubai // June 14, 2012
Berlin Art Link spoke with multimedia artist Fayçal Baghriche at Satellite project space in Al Serkal, Dubai where he produced his site-specific installation, ‘Nothing More Concrete’. Over three months, Baghriche participated in the Artist-In-Residency (A-I-R) Dubaiprogram this past spring, during which time he produced ‘Nothing More Concrete’ and was commissioned by Art Dubai Projects to produce two additional site-specific works, ‘Nothing More Real’ at Art Dubai 2012 and an open studio exhibition at the historic quarter of Bastakiya.
In our interview with Baghriche, he discusses his processes and motivations behind the two installations at Satellite and Art Dubai. ‘Nothing More Concrete,’ a monumental installation, designed to play on the use of cheap materials in the construction of gallery walls: Baghriche stacked plasterboard material horizontally to create a thick wall, its packaging forming a repetitive pattern along the edges. ‘Nothing More Real’, installed at the Art Dubai fair, was an intervention inspired by the rapid architectural build-up of the region. By building one fake incense burner next to two existing ones on the fair grounds at Madinat Jumeirah, he also brought to question the perceptions of external vs. internal reality and authenticity.
Fayçal Baghriche was born in Algeria and is currently based in Paris. As an artist, he is concerned with producing images that disrupt simple representational identification and subvert the viewer’s complacent reception of artworks. Baghriche works in photography, video, performance and sculpture. Some of his past international exhibitions include: ‘Brooklyn Euphoria’, New York (2004); ‘Architecture of Survival’, Outpost for Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2008); ‘Second Hand’, the Museum of Modern Art, Paris (2010); and ‘The Future of a Promise’ at the 54th
Venice Biennial (2011).
