Ghizlane Sahil

About

Born in 1973 in Meknes (Morocco). Lives and works in Marrakech.

Ghizlane Sahli embroiders, sculpts and draws. She tells the story of an inner and organic journey, carried by a universal dimension. With the help of ancestral techniques and the know-how of the artisan women around her, she develops her contemporary ideas. Together they create three-dimensional embroideries, including the "Alveole", from the waste she collects. The "Alvéole" is the elementary particle of her work. It is the atom that constitutes the substance. It is the cell whose accumulation and proliferation creates the work. Ghizlane thus brings her point of view by playing with materials, scales and volumes... She uses thread (silk, wool, plastic or metal) to weave and celebrate the subjects that stimulate her: the human body, in its generality, and the female body in its intimacy. Inspired by metaphor with nature, Ghizlane develops her subject matter and express her interiority and emotions. A pure emotion, cleansed of any religious, social, educational or generic contribution. She thus enjoys transforming matter, exulting it and giving it meaning.

Stories of Tripes

"In "Stories of tripes", Ghizlane Sahli is inviting us in an inner and organic journey, carried by a universal dimension, which intimates us to transcend everything that prevents us, human beings, from seeing the greatness of a Whole, and its sophisticated and complex mechanism. A universality that the artist cultivates on several scales: first of all, by the choice of her materials - these plastic bottles, the metallic mesh that supports them or the silk that covers them, could come from anywhere in the world. But also by the message: Ghizlane Sahli does not claim or condemn anything, for her, belonging is a fragmented jail, and identity is far too complex to be confined or freezed without risking its alienation. Instead, she consciously substitutes the exploration of what is most fundamental and common to man, his wild origin, freed of all the stigmas that affix distinction or belonging, whether cultural, social, religious, geographical, racial, sexual or gender. She says: "It is all these energies, good or bad - depending on what each of us experienced on that day - that somehow dictate the form of the final work. I am not in control. I like the idea of something being done and taking place, like an exchange, without me controlling or directing everything, because some things are done and some things are not, it's a bit like life.»

Mouna Anajjar