Wiame Haddad

Ceux qui restent

(Those who remain)

2012 – 2016

 

This photographer has the ability to make us feel ill at ease. These uncomfortable constructions are such that deconstruct our assumptions, notably about what can be “shown,” and about the representation of the body within the specific socio-cultural environment in which she grew up. Born in Lille, France, to North African parents, Haddad questions the legitimacy of her own point of view in the various series that compose her photographic process.

She adopts the position of in-between. Is her approach a Western one? Which legitimacy can she assume to possess?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She has chosen the “body” as the “body” of her approach.  Infused with great modesty and delicacy, a real tension nevertheless emanates from her images. No doubt largely due to the force of persuasion that she, a young woman, would have to exert upon her (Tunisian) father to accept posing nude. The comment is political. The body is drawn into a context of confinement and interior conflict, provoked by a historic or social environment. A softness emerges from her images – a softness one imagines to be a characteristic of the artist, one that is reinforced by the power of “resistance.” One might believe that, over the course of time, Wiame Haddad will participate in the evolution of perception of one continent toward another…

Nathalie Locatelli

Founder of Galerie 127, Marrakech