KÜNSTLERHAUS

BETHANIEN

Künstler*innen

Ouassila Arras

France

Ouassila Arras, Déplacements, 2019, breeze blocks, henna, plastic bags. Courtesy of FRAC Champagne Ardenne, Reims. Photo: Martin Argyroglo

Using simple materials and domestic objects collected from everyday life, Ouassila Arras questions the memory of identity. She traces the thread of a fragmented Franco-Algerian history, shattered by exile, war, silences and taboos, through the stories of her own family history, absent from official accounts and crossed by identity and political issues. Her research is informed by several trips to Algeria, Chicago and Berlin, which provided an opportunity for the artist to “de-territorialise” herself by collecting archives and testimonies in a constant interplay between past and present.

Ouassila Arras was born in 1993 in Juvisy-sur-Orge, France. She lives and works in Reims where she graduated from the ESAD de Reims in 2018. She won the PRISME PRIZE at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims in 2018. Her recent solo exhibitions include “Plein jeu #2” at the Frac Champagne-Ardenne (2019) followed by “Des Histoires d’eau” at CAC of Tanneries (2020). Her work was also included recently in the group shows “A Spoonful Of Sugar” (2020) at Fiminco Foundation in Romainville, and in the “Artpress Contemporary Art Biennial” at MAMC in Saint Etienne. Ouassila is the co-founder of the artist-run space “The Left Place-The Right Space” that opened in Reims in 2020.

STAY
01.07. – 31.10.2021