About

 

"Once the first avowal has been made, "I love you" has no meaning whatever; it merely repeats in an enigmatic mode the old message” wrote Roland Barthes in his “Lovers' Discourse”.

"JE T'AIME" explores the relation between the feeling of love, the words available to express and describe it and their translation.

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Being herself in a multicultural marriage with two different mother tongues - French and Arabic - used to think of the Other and their love; and a third tongue - English - used to communicate with each other,  the artist wanted to explore ways to transcend the linguistic obstacles and free the words of love from their restrictive definition.

In each of the 14 videos, the artist performs the affirmation "I love you" in French ("Je t'aime") to reflect one of the 14 ways of saying love in Arabic language following the guidance of her husband. By time, the "je t'aime"s repeated over and over turn into an incantation, an oracle, a music, a song... a cry that escapes the confinement of definitions and translations that language freezes.

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Inspired by the readings of Roland Barthes but also the Egyptian musical tradition of "tarab", the project intempts frees language from its relationship to meaning by transforming the words into sounds to speak directly to the heart and not to the intellect, the visible or the rational.

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