Mohamed Thara (Morocco) – As Long As I Can Hold My Breath, 2016, 9:40
People in Europe speak currently of the “refugee crisis”, as if the streams of refugees would come by coincidence. In fact, Europe and the old and new colonial superpowers prepared the fertile soil for all current conflicts, wars and civil wars in Middle East, Asia and Africa and the rapidly spreading terrorism. On the other hand, the climate change, natural and human made disasters and the economical, ecological, social and cultural collapse destroy the perspectives for people to remain in the homecountry, and search instead for the escape in flight. It is said, the refugee crisis would be the biggest since World War II, but the transmigration of people does not represent a new phenomenon in the history of human civilization, it is even like that, that the phenomenon of transmigration was always initiating a new era, a renewal and an important step forward to a next level of human civilization.
Mohamed Tara
was born in 1971 in Fez, Morocco. He lives and works between Fez and Bordeaux in France. As a multidisciplinary artist, he holds a National Diploma (DNSEP) in Visual Arts from the “Ecole des Beaux-Arts” in Bordeaux and a Master’s Degree in Visual Arts from the University of Bordeaux-Montaigne, France. Painter, photographer, video artist and multi-talented performer, he tries to extend the boundaries of painting with a very personal pictorial work that questions the ambiguity of the representation. His performances question the sense of “living together” and give his images the capacity to make us analyze the world we live in.
Mohamed Tara has participated in numerous exhibitions around the world: The “Soho International Art Contest” in New York, USA the “Biennale of Contemporary Art in Sharajah”, United Emirates Arab, the collective Grand Palais “Jeune Peinture” in Paris, France, the “Mutation” at the Museum – (CAPC) – of Contemporary Art in Bordeaux, France and also at the Cité Frugès-Le Corbusier in Pessac, the “Village des Arts” in Dakar, Senegal, at the “Essaouira’s Photographic Nights International Festival” Morocco and many other artistic events. Several private collectors from France, Morroco and other countries have acquired his work.