INFINITE VESSEL

Winner of the SAM 2021 prize, artist Dalila Dalléas Bouzar has been invited to the Palais de Tokyo to present Vaisseau infini, a monumental embroidery project created in Tlemcen with the help of professional and amateur Algerian embroiderers. Inspired by paintings from the Tassili rock site in the Algerian desert, this work is the culmination of a year’s work, including 5 months in the embroidery workshop. It was produced in Algeria, mainly by women.

At the Palais de Tokyo, Vaisseau infini unfolds in the form of a large tent that welcomes the public and numerous events. The embroidery interprets a vast collection of drawings made by the artist on the site of Tassili N’Ajjer, a rocky plateau in the Sahara desert in southern Algeria where, for several millennia, people have drawn their history and environment in the open on the stone walls, making the Tassili a unique testimony to human history, its relationship with nature and animals, the evolution of its behavior and its representations of gender and sexuality. Dalila Bouzar sees in these drawings the representation of a utopia: the distant past from which they originate constitutes for her a continuum that transports us to an infinite future, beyond the histories linked to domination that make up Algeria’s recent past.

A meditative, dreamlike, intimate and ritualized space, the Vaisseau infini tent, conducive to attention and listening, welcomes the public and invites them to listen to the Vintage Arab podcasts designed and produced by Hajer Ben Boubaker, as well as a sound creation by Paloma Colombe. Throughout the autumn, philosophers, artists, historians and others will share their thoughts and stories.

With support from Prix Sam pour l’art contemporain, Drac Nouvelle Aquitaine, Institut français d’Algérie, galerie Cécile Fakhoury and DMC.

Dalila Dalléas Bouzar’s work is represented by Galerie Cécile Fakhoury (Abidjan-Dakar-Paris).