Collage Résistant(s) – Widerständige Collagen

In the organizer's words:

At first glance, his works appear to be painted. On closer inspection, however, one recognizes many small snippets that merge to form a portrait. Graphic collage is the name of the art technique in which fragments from glossy magazines, newspapers and advertising brochures are glued onto a portrait originally drawn in pencil from a photograph. The resulting works show portraits of Algerian women fighters, revolutionaries and famous personalities from world history. In doing so, Mustapha Boutadjine repeatedly deals with specific themes: women, black people, Sinti*zze and Rom*nja, revolutionaries and poets - marginalized and sometimes stigmatized groups. His message is political and educational. Because there is a story behind every portrait.

With his collages, he consciously distances himself from empty art, i.e. art for art's sake. His concept: "... to tear up bourgeois press magazines and reuse them for committed portraits," he says. One example is his series "The Women of Algiers". Under the title deliberately borrowed from Eugène Delacroix, he has created 14 portraits of famous women - Algerian women, indigenous women, but also French, Swiss and Italian women who supported Algerian women during the Algerian war. "Because they were tortured, raped and abused. It's about international solidarity between women," says Boutadjine.

The 48 portraits selected by the artist himself are part of his more than 300 works. The exhibition shows portraits of more or less well-known personalities. Mustapha Boutadjine talks about his motives and messages in a short film.

Mustapha Boutadjine was born in Algiers in 1952. His childhood was marked by the Algerian War of Independence. After studying art in Algiers, he received a scholarship that enabled him to train as a designer in France. He then returned to Algiers and taught students at his former art school. In 1990, he was forced to leave his home country due to massive threats against artists and intellectuals by fundamentalists and has lived in Paris ever since.

Opening hours of the exhibition: Monday to Friday from 9 am to 6 pm and during events

Free admission. The exhibition venue is barrier-free.

All information here: https://www.rosalux.de/veranstaltung/es_detail/LVAMB