About

 

“Pour le plaisir des yeux” (“for the pleasure of the eyes”) is a series of 24 sculptures of arms in various gestures mounted on a wall that questions our relationship to otherness thru hospitality by observing, breaking the codes and challenging the performative form of hospitality that operates between local and tourists in the post-colonial societies and beyond.

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The artist spent some time in Marrakech and was fascinated by the very theatrical way hospitality was performed inside the tourist-driven old Medina. Crossing the cultural fence that separates tourists from locals, she worked as “as an intern” in one of the spice shops of the Place des Épices where she learned in depth the salesman job -  a job traditionally reserved to men - and got the chance to practice herself the various selling technics - some more efficient than others - they use to engage with the tourists and sell their spices.

She focused principally on the “greeting of the merchant” -  the gestures they do and the words they say to establish the first contact -  and use this act as a metaphor to question the way consumer-driven societies impact human relations. Each of the sculptures in the installation is made of one of the 24 spices used in the traditional Ras el Hanout spice mix and each represents the greeting gesture of one of the salesmen working in the Place des Epices. 

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