Zoulikha Bouabdellah

Born in 1977. Lives and works between Paris (France) and Casablanca (Morocco). A 2002 graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris-Cergy, Zoulikha Bouabdellah develops an art of transgression in which she questions the multiplicity of cultural identities. Through social, political and religious prisms, her installations, videos and drawings raise issues of conflict, sexuality and the status of women. Her work Silence (2015), for example, depicts prayer rugs in the colors of France, with women's stiletto heels on top. Combining the sacred and the profane, Muslim tradition and Western modernity, this work caused quite a stir at the "Femina ou la réappropriation des modèles" exhibition in Clichy-la-Garenne. With humor, without violence, Zoulikha Bouabdellah proposes an art of détournement that deconstructs the way we look at things, shaped by our cultural tropisms. Her work has been shown in renowned public institutions such as the Centre Pompidou (Paris, France) for the exhibition Africa Remix (2005) and Modernités Plurielles (2014), at the Tate Modern (London, UK) for the Paradise Now festival (2008), at WIELS (Brussels, Belgium) for the exhibition Body Talk (2015) and at the Venice and Dakar Biennales. Zoulikha Bouabdellah has won numerous awards, including the Prix Meurice pour l'Art Contemporain (Paris, France) and the Villa Médicis Hors les Murs (Rome, Italy).