Exhibition Sites
Site #1 Pascal Hachem
Fragile wall
Hand embroidered fabric, metal and
wood, 2023
Latifa, Souad, Ferjania,
Myriam and Mercedes, from Tunisia to Lebanon, five women with strangely similar
lives confide in Pascal Hachem about their ailments and their experiences. A
correlation is born between them and the artist through the embroidery. Hachem
takes images anchored in their memories:
fields of wheat, a thatched
cottage and a flowered dress merge with blows and wounds. They experience this
creative process as an outlet, a ray of hope in the gloom.
In the unveiled veil of
the fabric and the screen, they embroider their lives and abandon themselves in
the memories oscillating between trauma and resilience.
Through this intrusive
approach, the artist reveals to us the condition of the Arab woman from
disadvantaged backgrounds. He puts the spotlight on her strength and courage
despite the difficulties she experiences on a daily basis.
One’s
goal
Ink
on fabric and wood sticks, 2023
Inspired by scenes of
games from Ancient Greece that he draws on parchments, Pascal Hachem
caricatures the perpetual “Bread and Circuses” under the eye of omnipresent
power. It makes us aware that our homelands are only arenas where human beings
play the role of battle horses to amuse the power in place.
Viscous
cercle
Embroidered
fabric and embroidery hoops bamboo, 2023
Pascal Hachem
embroiders on circles a game scene from Ancient Greece where we can see a man
carrying another on his shoulders. This scene is accompanied by an inscription:
"Destruction is not a dream, destruction is a national duty".
In this work, the artist
sarcastically highlights the balance of power between humans. It reveals to us
the devastating skill of the Arab people on the historical, social and human
levels, thus confronting us with our nature, imbued with endemic and systemic
destruction in perpetual transmission.
Chef étoilé
6 carved rolling pins
and metal structures, 2023
“When it comes to
destruction, we have the skills”
Pascal Hachem pushes
the thoughts on destruction through this inscription engraved on rolling pins.
A revelation that sounds like “a very simple and very clear truth, a little
stupid, but difficult to discover and heavy to bear”, said Albert Camus in
Caligula to describe the behaviour of the absurd man and his responsibility
towards living-beings.
In this installation, the
artist makes an observation on Arab countries and their modus operandi based on
crushing. Pascal Hachem gives us a literal reading of the mechanisms of power
which, contrary to its initial function, acts like a steamroller on societies.
The players
Casted Brass, ribbon,
stick, glass and wooden frame, 2023
On to introspection,
through two medals in boxes, the first attributed to the passivity of the
artist and the second to the consciousness of power.
In this work, Pascal
Hachem criticizes himself, and he questions the role of the artist in
contemporary society in the face of the power in place since art for the artist
is a weapon of his own and which allows him to take a stand.
Pascal Hachem criticizes the
passivity of the artist in the face of power from which he can never completely
detach himself because of the socio-economic logics that govern its
development.
The complete Manuals
4 Books and steel
structures, 2023
For a better
understanding of his approach, Pascal Hachem creates a destruction manual, and
in an absurd twist, he offers us a meaningless book!
Through this ready
made, the artist pushes us to introspection by creating a mirror effect for a
better awareness of oneself and one's own condition.
A unique way for him to
undo his meticulously elaborate creative process.