Palais de Tokyo, where Mohamed Bourouissa is currently showing SIGNAL, plays an essential role in the artist’s career. Bourouissa presented his works here and at the Musée d’Art Moderne as part of Dynasty (2010), a unique joint project between the neighbouring institutions that sought to highlight a new generation of French artists. Following this show, he started to participate in exhibitions at Centre Pompidou, Paris; New Museum, New York; Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, among others, as well as international biennials and triennales (Sydney, Sharjah, Havana, Lyon, Venice, Algiers, Liverpool, Berlin, Milan).
Curated by Hugo Vitrani, SIGNAL is viewed as a collective gathering. The show is, in part, a retrospective of Bourouissa’s work juxtaposed with creations by artists with whom he shares close connections, such as Neïla Czermak Ichti, Collective Hawaf, LILA, Abdelmajid Mehdi, Ibrahim Meïté Sikely and Christelle Oyiri. It transcends chronological order and comprehensiveness by isolating cutting-edge moments of Bourouissa’s life.
The French-Algerian artist challenges conventional artistic norms by depicting the realities rooted in personal and collective struggles, known as ‘seum’ in Arabic, across various mediums, including video, site-specific installations, drawings, paintings and sculptures. Generally backed by archival materials and post-colonial theories, the outcomes of his curiosity resulted in a focus on communities resisting colonial oppression and forging their narratives amidst adversity. Bourouissa’s unique approach to contemporary art and instrumentalisation captures moments of tension, joy, and poetic reflection, delving into hidden histories and manipulating languages to create a liminal discord-influenced space.
SIGNAL welcomes the audience with a garden of various trees on an immersive yellow floor covering. Every tree is placed in black flowerpots and linked to the structure suspended from the ceiling by cables, creating a dystopian garden of unfamiliar objects intertwined with recognisable ecosystems. Reflecting on its title, the art exhibition emphasises signals for how they reveal hidden truths in our daily lives, prompting acknowledgement of the importance and urgency of correctly interpreting them.
The installation Brutal Family Roots (2020) emerged from a vivid memory from Bourouissa’s youth when he discovered that the acacia tree, the yellow flowering tree he remembered from his childhood in Algeria, was not native to his homeland. The acacia species originated in Australia and was introduced to Europe by the British in the late 18th century. It spread throughout the continent and other European colonies. By examining the colonial migrations of plant species worldwide, Bourouissa traced the initial movements of acacia trees from Australia to Algeria during natural history expeditions. Drawing parallels between the dispersal and adaptation of plants such as acacia and the evolution of language, Bourouissa has created an intricate algorithmic system capable of interpreting the silent language of the acacia tree to convey its narrative.
Bourouissa started to realise the deep connection between humans and plants, prompting his investigation into the psychotherapy techniques inspired by the psychiatrist and writer Frantz Fanon, who developed an analysis of mental alienation amidst colonial domination. “The truth is that colonialism inherently creates the appropriate environment for psychiatric hospitals,” said Fanon in The Wretched of the Earth, a book he authored in 1961 that analysed the psychological and sociological conditions of people living under colonialism while discussing the struggle for decolonisation and social transformation. After delving deeply into Fanon’s theories and archival material, Bourouissa shifted his focus toward plants and botany when he encountered a former Fanon patient who used gardening for self-healing. Consequently, he began using plants to address and heal the broader context of colonialism. For the Liverpool Biennial, he worked with locals, gardeners, school pupils, teachers, and artists to create a Resilience Garden (2018). The garden in Toxteth was envisioned as a place embodying ‘resilience,’ featuring a combination of plants native to Algeria and others renowned for their therapeutic properties.
Bourouissa’s work at the Palais De Tokyo, Brutal Family Roots (2020), which was displayed and commissioned by the 22nd Biennale of Sydney (2020), and Sonchus-oleraceus (2020), a small-scale watercolour series examining a herbarium book of the 1970s serve as evidence of intense and destructive allegations of colonial discourse. He extends his compositions by adding some of the processes of the botanic sciences by visualising them on paper or canvas, such as autopoiesis and a term frequently used by American professor Donna Haraway—‘synopsis’—to define concepts of environment, community, and relational life to emphasise togetherness, solidarity, and mutual dependence. The artist instrumentalises these scientific processes and terms to express the complexity of the interrelations between living beings and their interdependence. He highlights the parallels between the displacement of plants and humans throughout history, showcasing how both face geographical displacement due to natural and unnatural factors. This emphasises the need for a politicised ecosystem where interconnected species coexist, serving as integral parts of a larger whole.
Bourouissa’s narrative is shaped by his birthplace, Blida, approximately 50 km from Algeria’s capital, Algiers. At the age of five, he relocated to France with his family. Arabic was spoken at home, primarily with his mother, who was not fluent in French. In an interview with Mark Rappolt in ArtReview, he reflected on the challenges he faced integrating through language during his youth, “For me, the integration with the language was so hard. Society instilled a sense of racism, suggesting that speaking two languages hindered integration. However, perceptions varied depending on which language was spoken.”
Through one of his influential video works, Nasser (2015), or ‘Granter of victory’ in Arabic, Bourouissa emphasises the importance of challenging societal norms and transforming perceptions of language diversity. The video explores his encounter with societal structures. The artist enlisted his uncle as the main character in the video. He is depicted struggling to read an official letter on camera. In complex French legalese, which varies due to the specific terminology used in each conversation, the letter announces his conviction for theft involving violence. Nasser stumbles over almost every word, disrupting the smooth operation of formal language governing the city’s legality. He seems detached from the meaning of the words he utters, such as “theft… violence… prison…”, Bourouissa exposes Nasser’s struggle within these systems and concepts, which emerge from specific social class delinquency and racial marginalisation, by providing a sensitive translation of the formal language and blurring the boundaries between inclusion and exclusion. Amidst this narrative, a crime and its victim emerge, prompting viewers to navigate their sympathies.
SIGNAL transitions from cries to silence through the whispers of colonialism’s spectres. The show presents us with a distinctive and finely tuned atmospheric resonance of sensitivity, endeavouring to break free from the elements that poison and intoxicate us. It is almost imagined as a scream of those who have been wronged over decades and are facing great devastation because of unfair policies.
