ABDELKADER BENCHAMMA

Dates of residency: January till February 2017
Born: 1975
Hometown: Mazamet, Southern France
Lives and works: Paris and Montpellier
Education: 
2013 Fine Arts, Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris
Selected shows:
2019 Fata Bromosa, MRAC, Sérignan
2019 Engramme, Galerie Templon, Paris
2019 Syncopation, Pola Museum of Art, Hakone
2018 Melancholia, Fondation Boghossian, Brussels

THE ARTIST
Abdelkader Benchamma lives and works between Paris and Montpellier. Benchamma uses varied techniques and media to explore the constructed aspect of reality, inspired by cosmology, science fiction, existentialist theatre and literature. Benchamma’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at La Maison du livre, de l’image et du son, Villeurbanne, France (2016); Blueproject Foundation, Barcelona (2016); The Drawing Center, New York (2015-2016) and FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France (2015), among others. His work has also been exhibited in group shows at Sharjah Biennial 13 (2017); Château d’Oiron, France (2017); MRAC, Sérignan, France (2016); and 54th and 55th Venice Biennales (2011, 2013). His works can be found in the public collections of FRAC Auvergne; FRAC Languedoc-Roussillon; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Orléans and Artotheque de Pessac, France, amongst others.

THE RESIDENCY
At BAR, Abdelkader investigated how to transform a space through manipulating his drawings in preparation for his installation at the 13th Sharjah Biennial. In parallel he continued to question the ‘religious imaginary’ as he began a new series of drawings entitled Book of Miracles recreating and interpreting illustrations inspired by rumors and mythologies in Islam.