MOHAMED BOUROUISSA - PERIPHERAL

In this breakthrough series of photographs, Deutsche Börse award-winner Mohamed Bourouissa chose to appropriate the codes of historical painting by staging scenes with his friends and acquaintances in the Paris suburbs where they used to hang out. Confrontations, gatherings, incidents, looks, and frozen gestures all suggest a palpable tension. Invoking Delacroix as much as Jeff Wall, Bourouissa's high drama in the outskirts of Paris attempts to give a place in French history to individuals usually neglected and overlooked in contemporary society. In Périphérique , Bourouissa uses staging to critique stereotypical representations of these individuals, engaging with and parodying media representations of the suburbs and their inhabitants. 

Périphérique was completed from 2005-2008, in the context of unprecedented riots and violence in the French suburbs against social inequality. This landmark publication of the Périphérique series in 2021 will look back on the work's original context in light of still-prescient social, economic and political issues, through the eyes of two newly-commissioned texts by Taous R. Dahmani and Clément Chéroux. This first publication of the series in full mines Bourouissa's archives, with more than sixty pages of unseen preparatory photographs that reveal how the artist's meticulous process of observation, preparation and collaboration with his subjects shaped this unique and bold body of work.
Publisher's Statement.

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In this series of unpublished photographs, Mohamed Bourouissa, winner of the Deutsche Börse, has chosen to appropriate the codes of history painting by staging scenes with his friends and acquaintances in the Parisian suburbs where they used to meet. Confrontations, gatherings, incidents, glances, frozen gestures, everything suggests a palpable tension. Invoking both Delacroix and Jeff Wall, Bourouissa attempts, through this great drama of the Parisian suburbs, to give a place in the history of France to individuals usually neglected and forgotten in contemporary society. In Périphérique, Bourouissa uses staging to criticize the stereotypical representations of these individuals, engaging with and parodying media representations of the suburbs and their inhabitants.

Périphérique was created between 2005 and 2008, against the backdrop of unprecedented riots and violence in the French suburbs against social inequality. This landmark 2021 publication in the Périphérique series will revisit the work’s original context in light of ongoing social, economic, and political issues, through the lens of two newly commissioned texts by Taous R. Dahmani and Clément Chéroux. This first publication in the entire collection draws on Bourouissa’s archives, with over sixty pages of previously unpublished preparatory photographs that reveal how the artist’s meticulous process of observation, preparation, and collaboration with his subjects shaped this unique and bold body of work.
Publisher's text.