Culturesinterface 2014
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CULTURES INTERFACE MUSTAPHA AZEROUAL 1 CulturesInterface Portfolio 2014 Mustapha Azeroual CULTURES INTERFACE Created in 2010, CulturesInterface is a private company which produces and distributes contemporary art from North Africa and the Mediterranean. As well as using its own gallery walls in Casablanca, Morocco, CulturesInterface has resolved to become an itinerant gallery travelling throughout Africa, Europe and the Americas. This concept allows us to provide a multitude of services adapted to various places and art works. Through its mobility and flexibility, CulturesInterface participates at biennales and fairs as well as it collaborates with international struc- tures and art galleries having common goals. As such, we promote artists internationally by offering turnkey exhibi- tions through our curating services and by commissioning works of art for both public and private exhibition. 2 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual MUSTAPHA AZEROUAL Born in Tours, France, in 1979, Mustapha Azeroual lives and works in Paris, France. An engineer by training, Azeroual’s work is based on observation and experimentation, combining historical shooting and printing techniques with contemporary issues regarding photography. Between installations, objects and sequences, his works multiply the scope and dimensions of photography. Through his photographic work, Mustapha Azeroual attempts to give back to the spectator what the photographer traditionally removes when they impose a point of view, a frame and a defined subject. Mustapha Azeroual has been represented by CulturesInterface since 2014. That same year, the MACAAL (Musée d’art contemporain africain Al Maaden in Morocco), acquired a photographic installation by the artist. His latest project as a photographer, ELLIOS, led him to the residency program in Oukaïmeden, Morocco with CulturesInterface in May 2015, as well as a partnership with LESIA (Solar Observation Department at the Observatory of Paris-Meudon). 3 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Radiance #1 - 2013 M1_1 Polychrome gum bichromate print Constant height: 35 cm; variable width between 40 and 45 cm Edition of 3 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist The series Radiance #1 and Radiance #2 focus on how color is recorded in photography based on the premise that, according to the medium, the photographer only has limited control over the colors that they capture and photographically reproduce. In the Radiance #1 series, M1 questions the very nature of color in photography. Indeed, in this series, the photographer builds upon his black and white shots, which he reinterprets during the gum bichromate printing phase, a pigment process allowing him to colorize the image. We thus find ourselves face to face with colors spawned directly from the photographer’s imagination and not the result of photographic recording. 4 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Radiance #1 - 2013 M1_2 Polychrome gum bichromate print Constant height: 35 cm; variable width between 40 and 45 cm Edition of 3 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist 5 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Radiance #1 - 2012 V1_1 Color print, RA-4 process* 15 x 15 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist Here, the method of representation is changed dramatically by foregoing the square format for a diamond shape in order to move closer towards a chromatic study and away from a purely photographic representation. * enlarger printing using color negatives 6 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Radiance #1 - 2012 V1_1 / V1_2 / V1_3 / V1_4 Color print, RA-4 process 15 x 15 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist 7 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Radiance #2 - 2014 Ink-jet printing on 70gr/m2 Kozo paper 59 x 59 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist In the Radiance #2 series, the photographer records color variations during sunrise and sunset and reproduces them in these landscapes composed of purely photographic colors. His fascination with medium, a recurring subject in Mustapha Azeroual’s work, has driven him, in this series, to investigate different types of Japanese paper and their ability to become one with the image. 8 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Radiance #2 - 2014 Ink-jet printing on 70gr/m2 Kozo paper 59 x 59 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist 9 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Radiance #2 - 2014 Ink-jet printing on 70gr/m2 Kozo paper 59 x 59 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist 10 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Radiance #2 - 2014 Ink-jet printing on 70gr/m2 Kozo paper 59 x 59 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist 11 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Radiance #2 - 2014 Ink-jet printing on 70gr/m2 Kozo paper 59 x 59 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist 12 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Radiance #2 - 2014 Ink-jet printing on 70gr/m2 Kozo paper 59 x 59 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist 13 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Série Phenomenon #1 - 2014 Relief #1_OK Ink-jet printing on 70 gr/m2 Okashi paper 59 x 59 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist Phenomenon #1 is a series of works that experiment with photographic formats and the transformation of representation methods in photography. This research is conveyed through several devices, which dissociate the image and its format and experiment with the industrial production methods of images as well as photographic representation methods. In the two three-dimensional works from the series, Mustapha Azeroual decided to use drapery as a reference to the sculptural as well as a way to aesthetically play with the concept of soft images*. It is the focus on the material itself, which gives these works their shape and relief. 14 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Série Phenomenon #1 - 2014 Relief #1_B 4 gum bichromate prints on Okashi Japanese paper sewed and hung from porcelain hooks Surface: 80 x 100 cm Single edition + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist * In photography, the term soft image designates an image, which has lost all its photographic qualities: definition, contrast, acutance (cellphone pictures or digitally enlarged images) 15 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Série Phenomenon #1 - 2014 Relief #1_GB Monochrome gum bichromate print 70 x 70 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist In Relief#1 GB, the photographer also uses this sculptural reference, but this time as a means of revealing the image. Indeed, the printing process used, gum bichromate, is a long process during which the image appears by superimposing successive layers of pigments. It is this notion of reproducibility that interests the photographer: the more the image appears, the more it distances itself from the original image, making the final print a one-of-a-kind work. 16 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Série Phenomenon #1 - 2014 Relief #2_GB Monochrome gum bichromate print 70 x 70 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist 17 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Série Phenomenon #1 - 2014 Relief #3_GB Monochrome gum bichromate print 70 x 70 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist 18 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Série Phenomenon #2 - 2015 Relief #3_1 Polychrome gum bichromate print on 100% cotton paper 37 x 47 cm Edition of 3 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist Continuing with the theme in Phenomenon #1, the second component of this series focuses on the transition of representation to abstraction. Throughout this series, the photographer took his inspiration from abstract painters who, in the 1920s, were asked to create camouflage patterns, and uses this idea of the “soft image” again, giving it color and matter thanks to the gum bichromate printing process. 19 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Série Phenomenon #2 - 2015 Relief #3_2 Polychrome gum bichromate print on 100% cotton paper 37 x 47 cm Edition of 3 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist 20 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Série Phenomenon #2 - 2015 Relief #3_3 Polychrome gum bichromate print on 100% cotton paper 37 x 47 cm Edition of 3 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist 21 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Série Phenomenon #2 - 2015 Relief #3_4 Polychrome gum bichromate print on 100% cotton paper 37 x 47 cm Edition of 3 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist 22 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Série Phenomenon #1 - 2014 Relief #1_BOX_1/2/3/4 Photographic film: 13 x 18 cm Box: 13 x 20 x 16 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist In this series, the photographer projects a digital image on black and white film in order to compare different methods of representation in photography. The structure of the image itself (pixels, grain) is what appears through the light box. 23 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Série Phenomenon #2 - 2015 Relief #3 UV ink-jet printing on Brusan© aluminum 90 x 110 cm 3 negative print editions + 1 AP 3 positive print editions + 1 AP Courtesy of the artist Once again continuing with the theme explored in the Phenomenon series, the photographer goes back to the inseparable link between image and format. Here, Brusan© aluminum is used for its extreme fragility as well as its capacity to take shape. With every manipulation that alters the aluminum, the work bears traces of its experience and becomes, through this process, unique. 24 CulturesInterface Portfolio Mustapha Azeroual Résurgence #1 - 2010 Arbre #1 Tree-shaped mobile composed of 200 gum bichromate prints on porcelain plates 1,50 m x 1,50 m - Height: 3,10 m Single edition By using the image of the tree as an element of the collective memory, Mustapha Azeroual questions, in the Résurgence series, image fragmentation and its appropriation, by making the spectator recognize, fragment by fragment, a familiar image. In perpetual motion, the mobile’s 200 contact prints on porcelain plates thus make the spectator integral to the discovery of the image.