L’ART S’AFFICHE
From March 7 to May 31 2022
Montreal artist Berirouche Feddal‘s FOREHEAD KISS presented on the façade of Ubisoft’s studio in the Mile End
Art Souterrain is proud to present the third edition of L’art s’affiche, in collaboration with Ubisoft Montreal.
From March 7 to May 31, 2022, Ubisoft will host a solo exhibition of works by Montreal artist Berirouche Feddal in Mile End, on the exterior façade of its studio at the corner of Saint-Viateur and Saint-Dominique streets.
L’art s’affiche has three main objectives:
- To provide opportunities for emerging artists to be recognized and spotted by art lovers and professionals in the visual arts community;
- To familiarize and encourage reflection on contemporary art through new encounters and discoveries in the visual arts and thus strengthen the employees’ sense of belonging through this different activity;
- To offer visibility and accessibility to visual art in all its forms and to create an embellishment of the neighborhood for the citizens.
Art Souterrain is thrilled that Ubisoft is involved in supporting young emerging talent and we are pleased to announce that a regular program will be held every three months on their studio’s façade. This is an incredible opportunity for emerging artists to present a solo exhibition to the general public. It’s also a great opportunity for passersby, curious people and art lovers alike to discover new talent and fully immerse themselves in the artist’s world!
Berirouche Feddal
FOREHEAD KISS – from March 7 to May 31 2022
Biography
«Simmal nettidir la nsell.»
«The older we get, the more we hear.»
Originally from North Africa, from present-day “Algeria” and more precisely from the region of the Kabylia mountains, affiliated with the Igawawen of the Nath Irathen arc and of the Amazigh heritage, Berirouche Feddal (Vrirouc nat uqassi, ⵠⵔⵉⵔⵓⵛ ⵏⴰⵝ ⵓⴽⴰⵙⵉ ) is a Montreal artist recognized for his transdisciplinarity. He graduated with Honors in Print Media from Concordia University in 2020. His work has been shown at Bradley Ertaskiran (Montréal, Canada), ARTCH-Emerging Contemporary Art (Montréal, Canada), Ubisoft L’art s’affiche (Montreal, Canada), Conserverie Marrakech (Marrakech, Morocco), Maison de la culture de la Rivière-des-Prairies (Montreal, Canada), Fofa Gallery (Montreal, Canada) and Stewart Hall Gallery (Montreal, Canada).
Statement
Berirouche Feddal’s artistic approach explores themes of historical violence, migration, African popular culture and religious symbolism. Drawing inspiration from his personal memories, he evokes his native Kabylie and the tragedies that have struck Algerian history. He exploits subjects that affect his environment, circulating between his African origins and his current life. He uses bright colors, inspired by carpets made by his grandmother in the 1970s, to address this violence. Refusing to abdicate his culture, his language and his identity, the artist exploits subjects linked to his person and his memory, amalgamation of discoveries, anecdotes and, sometimes, revolt. Tracing his Amazigh African origins through the collection of biographical photographs, he blends past and present in a body of work that could be understood as split self-portraits evoking the fragility of memories and the mark left by our past experiences.
«Feddal is constantly removing and reapplying layers of materials, a process that mimics how memory is passed down through generations, added to and shaped, an accumulation of fragments over time. Feddal’s multidisciplinary work is unconcerned with historical accuracy or easy-to-read narratives, bridging the past with the present suffices. In manipulating some elements, he reveals others.»
– Galerie Bradley Ertaskiran
FOREHEAD KISS 1 to 12
Digitized carpets printed on fabric, 2022
This Forehead kiss series is a tribute to my father’s mother, Farez Aldjia, but also to those women affected by the development of petrochemicals in the late 1970s. With this new industry came plastic, generating in Kabylia as elsewhere in the world a change in the consumption model.
This generation of women from the mountains of Kabylia (North-East of present-day Algeria) from more than 40 years ago did not have the chance to go to school. These women have inherited a know-how of the ancestral craft industry in several forms, in the field of manual clothing, traditional weaving, the manufacture of objects of domestic use with an artistic touch that comes from time immemorial and has been passed on from generation to generation.
Made with recycled materials, the carpets of Farez Aldjia used in this series carry the marks of the time that has passed through them, but also their very strong belonging to this generation of underrepresented visual artists in a visual language of their own.
Madjid Feddal
Berirouche Feddal