{"id":2121,"date":"2022-02-19T17:43:26","date_gmt":"2022-02-19T17:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dartmagazine.com\/?p=2121"},"modified":"2022-03-14T23:33:52","modified_gmt":"2022-03-14T23:33:52","slug":"rachid-koraichi-le-chant-de-lardent-desir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/?p=2121","title":{"rendered":"Rachid Kora\u00efchi : Le Chant de l\u2019Ardent D\u00e9sir"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Siba Kumar Das<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rachid
Rachid Kora\u00efchi, Jardin d’Afrique, 2021, woven tapestry, 129.92 x 90.94 in. Courtesy of Aicon Art <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Open till March 12, 2022, this is Aicon Art\u2019s third solo show celebrating the art of Rachid Kora\u00efchi\u2014humanist, polymath, creator of art carrying universal significance. While originating in a culture permeated by Quranic scholarship and Sufi mysticism, his art crosses artistic frontiers going beyond Islamic calligraphy and inscription. In inventing a unique artistic language, Kora\u00efchi draws upon many languages and cultures, including those of the Berber and Tuareg peoples. Within his fold, too, are invented Chinese ideograms plus magical squares and talismanic glyphs and other auspicious signs. Also most impressive is the range of his materials, the employment of which has often inspired the artist to create a symbiotic partnership with designers and artisans around the globe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In June 2021, in the presence of Audrey Azouley, UNESCO Director-General, Kora\u00efchi inaugurated at Zarzis, Tunisia, Le Jardin d\u2019Afrique<\/em>, at once a graveyard, garden, and art installation dedicated to the thousands of migrants who have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean. Built with his own funds, he plans to expand the project to serve regions other than Africa and is seeking additional support. The cemetery is non-denominational, and it includes an interfaith prayer hall and a DNA data base for identifying the dead. Hand-crafted tiles from Nabeul, Tunisia, hand-fitted by local artisans, decorate its walkways. In the garden, five olive trees symbolize Islam\u2019s five pillars, while twelve vines reference the twelve Christian apostles. The garden-installation serves as a backdrop to the Aicon Art show, and many works on display allude to it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rachid
Rachid Kora\u00efchi,<\/em> La Montagne aux \u00c9toiles 3, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 55.12 x 55.12 in. Courtesy of Aicon Art<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The show is divided into three groups of art objects with a single work, a large tapestry, being a fourth. Fourteen acrylic canvases present linen-like tablets intricately inscribed with golden filigree-like letters, glyphs, ideographs, and other signs, all set in a deep indigo background that also frames the tablets. Dedicated to La Montagne aux \u00c9toiles<\/em> (Mountain of Stars), which may be seen as an allusion to the Jabal al-Nour<\/em> (Mountain of Light) on which the Prophet received God\u2019s word through the angel Gabriel, the paintings seem lit from within.  The effect is one of sublimation emerging from a world of bejeweled beauty: it\u2019s as if Kora\u00efchi is seeking a language that lies beyond language. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alabaster is today largely used as a medium for small sculptures and decorative objects. The Oxford Companion to Art also tells us that alabaster\u2019s \u201csmooth, polished surface offers little scope for subtleties of texture.\u201d Seen in light of these factors, it is notable that the six sculpted and incised alabaster wall tablets on display at Aicon Art are four times larger than Kora\u00efchi\u2019s earlier alabaster works. Moreover, working with traditional artisans, he has created textured surfaces so subtle, so intricate, so replete with meticulously and painstakingly achieved detail, you would think you are looking at finely woven wall hangings. If text can be \u2018woven fabric\u2019, as Roland Barthes thought, so can Kora\u00efchi\u2019s alabaster tablets, \u2018written\u2019 in a language beyond language. As you gaze at the tablets, you might recall the immensely long history of alabaster usage in both West Asia and North Africa\u2014ancient Mesopotamia and Pharaonic Egypt included\u2014and wonder at the reinvention in of this tradition hanging on Aicon Art\u2019s walls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rachid
Rachid Kora\u00efchi<\/em>, Le Chant de l’Ardent Desir I, 2021, alabaster, 43.31 x 43.11 in. Courtesy of Aicon Art<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The title the alabaster tablets share in common\u2014Le Chant de<\/em> l\u2019Ardent D\u00e9sir<\/em> (The Song of Burning Desire)\u2014makes you think of the Sufi mystic and poet Jala al-Din al-Rumi, who lived in the thirteenth century and whose life and work inspired Kora\u00efchi to create Path of Roses<\/em>, a large, multi-media installation that has been exhibited at multiple locations and is represented at The British Museum. Al-Rumi sang of desire and yearning in the context of love, both love of the world and love of God. Translator Coleman Barks says, \u201cEveryone knows the story of how representatives from all faiths came to [al-Rumi\u2019s] funeral.\u201d This is Barks again: \u201cHis place among world religions is as a dissolver of boundaries.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think of this dissolution of boundaries when you view, in the room where the alabaster tablets are displayed, the large woven tapestry titled Jardin d\u2019Afrique<\/em>. You might see now that it is Rumi\u2019s message of oneness amid multiplicity that Kora\u00efchi opens up for you when you visit his garden at Zarzis. That oneness seems to be especially symbolized by the spherical object in the tapestry\u2019s center\u2014the idea of unity reinforced by the cross within the sphere, the cross being a crossroads. You cannot escape noticing, however, that the symbolic sphere is beset by seething sea-waves\u2014the waves of the Mediterranean. Kora\u00efchi\u2019s garden is a haven of beauty and peace; it\u2019s also a call to action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bordering the tapestry\u2019s central images is an assemblage bringing together multitudinous elements of Kora\u00efchi\u2019s unique visual language. Note especially the row after row of anthropomorphic objects that seem to marry Arabic calligraphy with Chinese ideograms. Think, is this not suggestive of a gate you could open to a more cross-cultural world? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rachid
Rachid Kora\u00efchi,<\/em> Les Vigilants, la Nuit\u20263_2021, black painted corten steel, 66.93 x 51.18 x 18.11 in. Courtesy of Aicon Art. 21 Calligraphic Figures editions + 21 AP 170 cm Corten painted in black mat painting (car type of paint)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lining the path to the monumental tapestry are seven steel structures which represent the translation of Kora\u00efchi\u2019s anthropomorphic images into shadow-casting sculptures. These sculptures represent a distinct branch of his oeuvre that he invented some years ago and that looms large in his imagination. Titles and significations, together with the exact shapes of images, vary from installation to installation. For instance, back in 2008, in another context, Kora\u00efchi shaped them as Les Priants<\/em> (The Supplicants). For his present purpose, the artist shapes them differently, making them warrior-like, and calls them Les vigilants, la Nuit<\/em> (Night Sentinels), perhaps suggesting that they both protect and are one with the souls buried in Le Jardin d\u2019Afrique<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you return to viewing Kora\u00efchi\u2019s acrylic paintings and alabaster tablets, you will find in them different renditions of his anthropomorphic imagery. They are ubiquitous in his art and seem to symbolize the humanism that drives his art and activism. In the naming of the Aicon Art show as Le Chant de l\u2019Ardent<\/em> D\u00e9sir<\/em>, there is a purposefulness. Its glowing beauty is a cry in a world of fissures and fractures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rachid Kora\u00efchi: Le Chant de l\u2019Ardent D\u00e9sir<\/em><\/strong>is on view through March 12, 2022 at Aicon Art, 35 Great Jones Street, New York, NY 10012. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Koraichi was born in Ain Beida, Algeria, in 1947 and now lives and works in Paris, with major projects in Algeria, Egypt, Spain, Tunisia, the U.S.A., and Dagestan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Siba Kumar Das Open till March 12, 2022, this is Aicon Art\u2019s third solo show celebrating the art of Rachid Kora\u00efchi\u2014humanist, polymath, creator of art carrying universal significance. While originating in a culture permeated by Quranic scholarship and Sufi mysticism, his art crosses artistic frontiers going beyond Islamic calligraphy and inscription. In inventing a … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Rachid Kora\u00efchi : Le Chant de l\u2019Ardent D\u00e9sir”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2121"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2191,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121\/revisions\/2191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}