Lee Ufan Arles and Maison Guerlain have awarded the Art & Environment Prize to Djabril Boukhenaïssi for its inaugural edition. Chosen from 381 applicants and five finalists by a jury consisting of cultural figures and presided over by Lee Ufan, Djabril Boukhenaïssi will benefit from a six to eight-week residency followed by a solo exhibition at Lee Ufan Arles’ Espace MA during the summer of 2024. Situated in the heart of the city, Lee Ufan Arles functions as a museum housing historical and recent works of Lee Ufan, along with supporting contemporary artistic creation and cultural interactions. The Prize offers the winner a valuable opportunity to present their project to both local and international audiences, providing visibility and a genuine career springboard. Moreover, it fosters unique collaborative prospects for the laureate with Maison Guerlain.

Boukhenaïssi’s artistic practice delves into the concepts of disappearance and fragility, introducing new narratives to evanescent memories, whether personal or collective. Following his diploma from the Beaux-Arts de Paris in Djamel Tatah’s workshop, the artist established his engraving and painting studio in the Normandy countryside. He justifies his choice by the presence of the starry night, an inexhaustible source of inspiration for his artistic and philosophical reflections. « Over a century ago, Van Gogh created The Starry Night. Would it still be possible to produce such a painting today, positioning oneself in the same place? » 

Starting from observations as straightforward as these, Djabril Boukhenaïssi intends to study the disappearance of our contemporary night sky and its impact on our collective imagination. « If this source of poetic imagery dries up, it will undoubtedly affect our relationship with the world. The night gives us a sense of the dizzying experience of the infinite, a feeling of humility. » The artist plans to explore this hypothesis in engraving and painting during his upcoming residency at Lee Ufan Arles.

« I’m 30 years old, part of a generation that has lived its entire existence with the constant background noise of the word ‘disappearance.’ Even as a child, I heard about the disappearance of jobs, for instance, the disappearance of snow, the disappearance of species. Sometimes I’m quite astonished by humanity’s responses. There’s a sort of systematic resurgence of artificialization of natural phenomena. There’s no more snow, so we produce fake snow. There are no more bees, so we propose making robotic bees for pollination. » 

Djabril Boukhenaïssi’s work will be exhibited in Lee Ufan Arles’ Espace MA following his residency.

Born in 1993 in the banlieue Parisienne, Boukhenaïssi holds degrees from the University of the Arts in Berlin and the National School of Fine Arts in Paris since 2018. He explores a range of mediums throughout his work, including painting, pastels, and etching, drawing inspiration from literature and music, focusing on themes of disappearance and fragility.

Painting becomes a realm where recognition can occur, transcending realism to capture these sensitive images. The artist assumes that painting, executed with hole-like motifs and porous layers, can mirror how internal images return through our personal temporal journey. The transience and frailty of these events define his work.The use of pastels is crucial due to their translucency, allowing colors and motifs to remain distinct without merging on the same plane. The technique also involves the use of reserves in this process.

The sensitive imagery of his work, mirrors his personal experiences, evoking elusive and delicate events like childhood memories, glimpsed landscapes, musically induced reveries, or the faces of lost friends. He plays with the notion of these occurrences that reside in the interstices of our memory, elusive and hard to grasp, yet evocative, as they shape our identities, toying with imprecision and traces of the past that ground our present.

Born in 1936, in Haman, South Korea, Lee Ufan is celebrated for his minimalist, conceptually rich art which explores the nexus of nature, matter, and human consciousness. As both artist and philosopher he has made significant contributions to the Mono-ha (a term he coined himself, meaning « School of Things » and Arte Povera art movements. His iconic « Relatum » series, which began in the 1970s, features steel plates alongside natural stones, embodying the harmony of opposing forces and the coexistence of art and nature.

@leeufanarles

@djabril.boukhenaissi