Tarek Lakhrissi

📍 Venue → GHMP

Tarek Lakhrissi is an artist and poet with a background in literature. He works across installation, performance, film, text, and sculpture, engaging with political and social issues around transformative and self-advocacy narratives within language, magic, codes, and affects, putting queer and minority narratives at the center. His newly commissioned installation takes the shape of an arsenal with a series of sculptures in the form of futuristic weapons for the revenge and self-defense of fugitives who seek refuge from the aggression and oppression of the world in fantastic realms. The luminous weapons, inspired by the science fiction universe of film series and video games such as Alien, X-Men, or Final Fantasy, are thus conceived primarily for self-defense, proposed as a philosophical concept by the philosopher Elsa Dorlin, fighting against all types of conservatism and for survival in a hostile terrain, particularly for queer people of color. Besides self-defense, revenge often remains the only option for minority groups experiencing violence and injustice. An ambient soundtrack composed by music composer and DJ Yara Saïd complements the weapons in an immersive, dreamy yet disturbing universe.

The work was produced with La Verrière – Fondation d’entreprise Hermès in Brussels.

The production of the artwork was supported by a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway (EEA Grants) as a part of the project “Centre and Periphery: Cultural Deserts in Eastern Europe”.

Tarek Lakhrissi (*1992) is a French-Moroccan artist and poet with a background in literature. He works across installation, performance, film, text, and sculpture, engaging with political and social issues around transformative narratives within language, magic, codes, and affects. His background in literature draws influence from feminist and queer writers such as Elsa Dorlin, Jean Genet, Kaoutar Harchi, Monique Wittig and José Esteban Muñoz, providing his work with a critical atmosphere and an interest in queer of color experience. He currently teaches at the CCC Research-Based Master Program of the Visual Arts Department at HEAD (Geneva School of Art and Design). Lakhrissi has been exhibited internationally at galleries and institutions including Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Museum of Contemporary Art, 22nd Biennale of Sydney (Sydney), Wiels (Brussels), Palazzo Re Rebaudengo/Sandretto (Guarene/Torino), Manchester International Festival (Manchester), Mostyn (Llandudno), Shedhalle (Zurich), Fondation Ricard (Paris), Quadriennale di Roma, Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Rome), High Art (Paris), Kevin Space (Vienna), Hayward Gallery (London), Auto Italia South East (London), Grand Palais, FIAC (Paris), Fondation Lafayette Anticipations (Paris), L’Espace Arlaud (Lausanne), Zabriskie (Geneva), Fondation Gulbenkian (Paris), Veda gallery (Florence), CRAC Alsace (Altkirch), Kim? (Riga), Artexte (Montreal), Gaité Lyrique (Paris), and SMC/CAC (Vilnius). Lakhrissi’s artworks are part of different private and public collections like Defares, Sandretto Foundation, or CNAP. He is represented by VITRINE Gallery (London/Basel). He lives and works in Paris.