Film UbuWebZoulikha Bouabdellah (b. 1977)
Dansons (2002)
Born in Moscow, Russia, in 1977.
Lives and works between Casablanca and Paris.
Zoulikha Bouabdellah grew up in Algiers, moving in 1993 to France, where she obtained her masters from ENSBA Paris-Cergy in 2002. Video and fine artist, she directed the 2003 video Dansons, in which she melds French and Algerian archetypes by executing a belly dance to the French national anthem.
In 2005, she participated in Africa Remix at the Centre Pompidou, and three years later was selected for the Tate Modern’s festival Paradise Now! Essential French Avant-garde Cinema 1890-2008. Zoulikha Bouabdellah has recently shown at the Mori Art Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Menil Collection, the Museum für Moderne Kunst and the Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno. Her installations, video, or drawings question icons, dominant representations, motifs and ornaments by juxtaposing them to geopolitical dynamics and global issues linked to conflicts, sexuality, or the status of women. This deconstruction of view operates via a reflexion upon culture, production, and industrialisation.
Zoulikha Bouabdellah has been awarded the Abraaj Capital Art Prize, the Prix Meurice pour l’Art Contemporain, and the Villa Medicis Hors les Murs. Her works are part of public and private collections in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, China, and the United States.