Alex Ayed
∗1989, Strasburg, France
The Franco-Tunisian artist Alex Ayed currently lives and works at sea. His life embodies his way of understanding art, an itinerant practice that roots the conception of the work of art as much as possible in the territory in which it intervenes, with the aim of weaving new stories into the network of narratives already present. His works often give rise to unpredictable situations, beyond the artist’s control, such as Transumanza (2021), the title of which refers to the annual pilgrimage of shepherds, as practised in the Mediterranean for thousands of years. Prior to the opening of the exhibition, the gallery spaces hosted a flock of goats and chickens that interacted with works designed for them – such as birdfeeders and hay objects – leaving traces of their passage in the space once opened. This lyrical and situationist approach to art is also to be found in Untitled (Beit elhmam), installed for The Parliament of Marmots in a grassy clearing at the edge of the highway near Pontives. The imposing sculpture, more than two metres high, is a dovecote made of olive wood, clay and straw and then covered with lime, in keeping with traditional North-African techniques. Traditionally, they were quite common in cities throughout the Mediterranean as well as in various parts of the world. The most interesting aspect for Ayed is that their nature is ambiguous. Built by humans to be inhabited by turtle doves, a seemingly caring gesture but at the same time pretentious, for however hospitable they might be, they convey the idea of domestication and a relationship of dominance. Ayed thus adopts the pigeon house from a metaphysical perspective, as one of the few spaces left within the confines of human settlements intended to accommodate the presence of animals. An encounter that in the artist’s vision confers great spiritual power to a space.
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