Via del Castello 11, San Gimignano (SI), Italia tel. +390577943134 | [email protected] | www.galleriacontinua.com

LEILA ALAOUI Je te pardonne

Opening: Saturday February 18th 2017, Via del Castello 11, 6pm-midnight Until 23.04.2017, Monday–Sunday, 10am–1pm, 2–7pm

Galleria Continua is honoured No Pasara, Alaoui’s first photographic to present, for the first project, is the leitmotif of the show. A time in San Gimignano, a solo kind of manifesto of her commitment, exhibition by the French- this series of shots, a mix of colour and black and white photos, reveals Moroccan photographer and the multiple faces of Moroccan video artist Leila Alaoui. The youth in search of a ticket to show comprises photographs Europe, candidates for an uncertain from various series of the exile and somehow lost in their own artist’s work, so viewers can country. A humble portraitist, Alaoui fully appreciate the humanistic observed and listened to them, commitment displayed by Alaoui picking up her camera only after she had spent time with and talked to throughout her life. them. Her wish was to understand as much as possible about the lives, The exhibition opens with a text, “Je te pardonne” (‘I forgive you’), dreams and mirages of the so-called written by the artist’s sister, Harragas (literally, “those who burn Yasmina. Imagining the words Leila [borders]”), and what prompts them might have said to her murderer, to abandon their homeland. Crossings this deeply moving letter gives us is a portrait of the migrants of sub- a glimpse of the artist’s sensibility Saharan Africa, and an expression of in the face of the social realities her encounter with them. A video and experienced by marginalized people then photographic work, this series around the world – women and men of images tries to give a voice back with forgotten faces, hidden behind to women and men who have left statistics or stereotyped images. everything behind them in order to A globe-trotting artist, Alaoui saw set out in search of a better life on her mission as being essentially the other side of the Mediterranean, social. The people she met speak to embarking on a fraught and dangerous us, through her portraits of them, journey during which some of them of a powerful and difficult reality. lost their lives. Those who hung on as And despite this, the expressions far as Morocco, before getting stuck captured by the artist are imbued at the gateway of Europe, carry with great humanity, restoring to on their skin the visible or invisible those who have been forgotten the scars of this incomplete journey. dignity they deserve. The intensity of their gazes and of their stories offers continuity with producing this set of portraits, the the photos of No Pasara and ties artist laid the foundations for a full- in with the portraits of Natreen, a blown visual archive. More than just series of photos taken in in a documentary work, Les Marocains 2013, which focus on Syrian refugees was also a way, for the young fleeing the chaos of the civil war – photographer, to begin to discover women, men and children who ended her own inheritance, offsetting the up in a foreign country, having lost distance inherent to the camera their land and possessions, hoping with a form of intimacy, thanks both for a better future but caught in to her Moroccan roots and the ties an apparently unbreakable limbo. she forged with people during her Morocco, Syria, Central Africa: travels. It was a way, in short, to other places, other reasons to affirm an independent aesthetic, free flee. Everywhere there is the same from any Westernizing folklore, and disorientation, the same hope, to highlight the dignity of individuals the same harsh, illusion-shattering and of an entire country. reality. Alaoui explored these realities with great determination, giving voice to distant words and The artist, photographer and video artist re-transcribing with sensitivity and Leila Alaoui was born in 1982, and studied humility the beauty of people who, photography at the City University of thanks to her work, were able to New York. Her work explores the building elude their destiny as anonymous of identity, cultural diversity and figures in the news. migration in the Mediterranean area. She used photography and video to express The video Crossings, in which the various social realities through a visual voices of migrants blend in with the language lying on the boundary between sounds of their lives, will be screened the documentary and the plastic arts. at the Teatro dei Leggieri during the Since 2009 her works have been shown in private view. This will be preceded various countries, amongst other places, by a presentation about the artist at the Institut du Monde Arabe and at and her work. The video will then run the Maison Européenne de la Photographie throughout the opening evening. in Paris, at the Konsthall of Malmoe in Sweden, and in the national palace of The exhibition also showcases the citadel of Cascais in Portugal. portraits from the series Les Alaoui’s humanitarian commitment also Marocains. A broad-ranging project included various photographic missions inspired by ’s Americans, for prominent NGOs, such as the Danish it led Alaoui to travel the length and Refugee Council, Search for Common breadth of Morocco with a portable Ground and HCR. In January 2016, while photographic studio. In the course working on an of her encounters, she built up a commission about women’s rights in protean portrait of the country , Leila Alaoui was seriously through its inhabitants: Arabs and wounded in the terrorist attacks in Berbers, women and men, adults and Ouagadougou. She did not recover, and children. Together they form a mosaic died on 18 January 2016. The Fondation of different traditions, cultures and Leila Alaoui was set up to preserve her aesthetics, revealing many customs work, defend her values and inspire and that are gradually disappearing as a support artists working to promote result of rampant globalization. In human dignity.

For further information about the exhibition and for photographs: Silvia Pichini, Communication Manager [email protected], mob. + 39 3474536136