DHEWADI HADJAB

2021
WITH THE BEAUX-ARTS DE PARIS
ST-EUSTACHE CHURCH, PARIS

Dhewadi Hadjab was born in 1992 in M’Sila (Algeria). He lives and works in Paris. In 2019, he graduated from the École nationale supérieure d’art in Bourges, after five years of study at École des Beaux-Arts in Algiers. He is currently studying for a degree at the Beaux-Arts in Paris. His paintings explore the movements of bodies in space by placing people in suggestive or awkward poses in a fascinatingly eerie ambiance. His work was recently shown as part of the group exhibition “Danser sur un Volcan” at FRAC Franche-Comté.

On the occasion of its 10th anniversary, the Rubis Mécénat endowment fund pursues it collaboration with the Beaux-Arts de Paris and Saint-Eustache Church through a commission to the young painter and student of the Beaux-Arts de Paris Dhewadi Hadjab for Saint-Eustache Church, curated by Gaël Charbau.

The two paintings, measuring over three meters in height, which the artist created for Saint-Eustache Church, depict two inverted female bodies with their heads downwards. Their arms are resting on the ground and their feet are trying to balance an unsteady prie-dieu. Photography and pictorial practice are at the core of Dhewadi Hadjab work, and all of the artist’s paintings begin with photographs of models whom he places in very awkward positions. Then, as he extremely meticulously creates the painted work, he accentuates every single detail so that the painting is not a copy of a moment, but its own world. Here, the artist leaves the interpretation open and invites us to reflect on the transformation and the transfiguration of the body. The prie-Dieu, a metaphor for support points in dance, offers the body the opportunity to aspire to a higher language, the language of the soul, and in his own way, Dhewadi restores meaning to this object.

Practical information
Carte blanche to Dhewadi Hadjab
Curated by Gaël Charbau
Until December 12, 2021 at St. Eustache Church, Paris
In partnership with the Beaux-Arts de Paris