Zakaria Rahmani (Moroccan, b. 1983)

Zakaria Rahmani uses Arabic, his mother tongue, and French, the language of the “Other,” as audio-visual material to be transformed by paint as it touches the canvas complemented with his intonations of his voice. He uses sound software, creating a series of visual and audio portraits that centre on questions related to the multiplication and division of the identity of the human being. This work involves investigations and uses of writing and language in the creation of visual and audio portraits that give rise to a vast project of productions, broadcasts, experimentations and research. This project, entitled From Right to Left, began in spring 2007. The significance of the project is that it came after Rahmani was an Artist in Residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. When he returned home to Tangier, Morocco after spending eight months living with the "Other.” He began writing on the canvas rather than painting on it. He would no longer paint pictures; instead, he wrote portraits with the materials. The Arabic language is written from right to left, hence the title of the project. The artist use plasticity, symbolism and aesthetic of writing to reveal and explain the notions of identity, culture and art that are generated by language. In concert with Arabic, the French language became a reality, his reality: the confrontation of cultures that is his life.