Born in 1993 in Algiers (Algeria), lives and works between Algiers and France.
« What else is criminal activity but the passionate pursuit of alternatives?°»
In her most recent work, Inner Sea Desire, Ghyzlène Boukaïla reframes the Mediterranean as a realm of possibilities, where smugglers and their passengers take on the figure of the privateer. Thus transcending their status as fugitives, they claim the role of explorers. Exile becomes an initiatory quest, flight an indirect form of struggle – that of « the bastards and outlaws, [those] who seek to extricate themselves from hierarchical dominations, the abnormals°° ».
Through film, installation, and sculpture, Ghyzlène Boukaïla subverts established narratives. In both subject matter and form, boundaries are crossed and shifted: scenes that stretch out in length, off-screen voices, multiple monitors, and immersive sets are all ways for the artist to inhabit thresholds – those transitional spaces open to speculation.
She opens up spaces of latency, where waiting is active, memorial. A desolate alley, a ghost town, the horizon stretching beyond sight, serve as stages for renewed mythologies, potential transformations. Ghyzlène Boukaïla invites us to join her in these places deserted even in discourse, uncomfortable to the mind, to envision together unhoped-for perspectives.
°Jack Halberstam quoting a zine by Shahrzad Collective, The queer art of failure, 2011.
°°Élodie Brémaud, Les Suivants ou les limites de nos capacités, 2017.
Written by Juliette Gaufreteau.