Praz-Delavallade
Soufiane Ababri , Maroc
Si nous ne brûlons pas, comment éclairer la nuit
Soufiane Ababri, Bed work / (The story didn’t stop at Jack’s hotel), 2023, Color pencil and photo collage on paper, 82 x 122 cm (framed), 32 1/4 x 48 in (SA23D3)
Praz-Delavallade is pleased to present “Si nous ne brûlons pas, comment éclairer la nuit ?“, Soufiane Ababri’s second solo exhibition at the gallery in Paris, from May 4 to June 10, 2023. It was in 1930 that the Turkish poet Nâzım Hikmet wrote these lines that Soufiane Ababri reinterprets for the title of his new exhibition. Condemned several times for his political activism, Hikmet lived in prison for a long time, went into exile and went underground, before being stripped of his Turkish nationality, which was only returned to him posthumously. In the poem “Like Kerem” from which these few sentences are taken, Hikmet transforms a traditional 16th century tale of forbidden love into a call to revolutionary action. Soufiane Ababri takes up this theme of the subversive scope of erotic force and brings together here different works that deal, each in their own way, with decay. Through his exploration of the fall, Ababri reminds us of the necessary risk-taking, like that of the tightrope walker who advances alone on his thread, to come to the world and to oneself.
«Si je ne brûle pas
si tu ne brûles pas
si nous ne brûlons pas
comment les ténèbres
deviendront-elles
clarté ?»
Exhibition from May 04 to June 10, 2023.
The gallery
Praz-Delavallade has a longstanding relationship with both American and European artists whose practices span a variety of mediums. The gallery was founded 1995 in Paris with an inaugural exhibition that included work by Paul McCarthy, Mike Kelley, Richard Petitbon, Jim Shaw, and Benjamin Weisman. In 1997, Praz-Delavallade was part of a burgeoning art scene in the 13th arrondissement on the eastern side of Paris, along with Air de Paris, Almine Rech, Art: Concept, Jennifer Flay, and Emmanuel Perrotin. Due to its strong connections with artists in Los Angeles, the gallery was known for bringing an international program to the growing Paris art scene, by featuring artists such as Sam Durant, Jim Isermann, John Miller, Analia Saban, Jim Shaw and Marnie Weber, among others.
In 2010, the Paris gallery moved to its current location at 5 rue des Haudriettes in the Marais and has continued its support of Los Angeles based artists by exhibiting a new generation that includes Matthew Brandt, Heather Cook, Chris Hood, Nathan Mabry, Joe Reihsen, Ry Rocklen, Amanda Ross-Ho and Jwan Yosef alongside European artists such as Soufiane Ababri, Pierre Ardouvin, Thomas Fougeirol, Maude Maris and Golnaz Payani.
In the fall of 2016, Praz-Delavallade opened a new outpost at 6150 Wilshire Boulevard–on the renowned thoroughfare in Miracle Mile right across from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art–in an effort to create a bridge between the two cities it calls home.
Gallery artists
Soufiane Ababri • Pierre Ardouvin • Carlotta Bailly-Borg • Pauline Bazignan • Matthew Brandt • Phil Chang • Heather Cook • Sepand Danesh • Sam Durant • Thomas Fougeirol • Genevieve Gaignard • Chris Hood • Jim Isermann • Joel Kyack • Dan Levenson • Nathan Mabry • Maude Maris • John Miller • Amy O’neill • Adi Nes • Golnaz Payani • Joe Reihsen • Dario Robleto • Ry Rocklen • Amanda Ross-Ho • Analia Saban • Jim Shaw • Cole Sternberg • Marnie Weber • Johannes Wohnseifer • Guy Yanai
Galerie sélectionnée par Martha Kirszenbaum
