Mohamed Bourouissa

Photo: Pete Carr

Mohamed Bourouissa, Horse Day (film still), 2014-15. Courtesy the artist and Kamel Mennour, Paris/London

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Mohamed Bourouissa (b. 1978, Blida, Algeria) lives in Paris, France. Bourouissa’s images, installations and videos explore power relations, displays of masculinity and societal tensions, often by referencing art-historical imagery. Périphérie (2005–09), for instance, presents a myriad of tense, potentially violent confrontations in urban environments through staged photographs. With a strong collaborative sensibility, Bourouissa embeds himself within the community, examining how society is structured and how social processes are activated.

For Liverpool Biennial 2018, Mohamed Bourouissa has created a garden working with local people, gardeners, school pupils, teachers and artists. The artist was inspired by a garden made by a patient of the psychoanalyst and writer Frantz Fanon at the Blida-Joinville Psychiatric Hospital in Blida, Algeria. Fanon’s patient created the garden as occupational therapy, reflecting the organisation of his mental space through its structure. Bourouissa researched and learnt the patient’s approach to botany, architecture and therapy in order to create a similar garden in Liverpool. The garden in Toxteth has been conceived as a space of ‘resilience’. Some of the plants are native to Algeria and others have healing effects.

A film documenting the garden and its evolution is presented at FACT, alongside a new installation of Bourouissa’s film Horse Day (2013). The work, in which the artist designs, stages and documents an equestrian event, focuses on a North Philadelphia community’s efforts at neighbourhood revitalisation.

Recent exhibitions include Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, France (2018); Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, USA (2017); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2016); Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada (2014); and Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2014).

Mohamed Bourouissa at Liverpool Biennial 2018

Resilience Garden, 2018
Timber, paint, plants, soil, pebbles
Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial in partnership with Kingsley Community School and Granby Four Streets CLT
Exhibited at 75-77 Granby Street

Le murmure des fantômes (The whispering of ghosts), 2018
Timber, paint and other materials
Video, approx. 12 min
Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial and FACT
Exhibited at FACT

Nique les trois couleurs (Fuck the three colours), 2018
Anthotype with spinach on paper
Exhibited at FACT

Entre deux feux (In the crossfire), 2018
Anthotype with spinach on pape
Exhibited at FACT

Vengeance (Revenge), 2018
Anthotype with spinach on paper
Exhibited at FACT

Horse Day, 2014–2015
Two-channel video, 13:32 min
Exhibited at FACT

Caleb, 2018
Polylactic acid 3D sculpture, resin, car body parts and aluminum plates
Exhibited at FACT