UNSEEN SUN (RED), 2024

The artwork pledge

• GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
• QUALITY EDUCATION
• GENDER EQUALITY
• REDUCED INEQUALITIES
• SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES
• PEACE, JUSTICE, AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS
• PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS

Tags

• Abstract
• Diaspora
• Feminism
• Future
• Gender
• Language
• Literature
• Performativity
• Queer
• Social

About this artwork

Tarek Lakhrissi investigates means of entry, re-imagining constraining spaces by conjuring the metaphysical space of ‘hell’. Drawing from his background in literature, Lakhrissi delves into a revised version of Dante’s Inferno, considering Monique Wittig’s lesbian re-writing of the same. In Wittig’s experimental narration, l’enfer is a place with rigid conditions, both social and climatic.

But unlike Dante’s story, hell is often more common-looking than it seems: it’s accessed via a bar or a pool club, and it’s a place or a situation where Wittig is faced with difficult decisions that put into question her choices in a normative world. Lakhrissi’s work embraces the queer tools embedded in Wittig’s quest, making space for transformative narratives. If ‘hell’ is a place where undesirables are relegated, then Lakhrissi makes it hospitable for all those who are ‘other’.

Giulia Civardi