At the Institute of Islamic Cultures, art and crafts linked in a free exhibition

He was a thread; one that allows us to forge links between humans and between generations. Here is the framework that the art historian Sonia Recasens took from his early childhood to imagine “The spirit of the gesture”an exhibition that plays on the sensitive chord to inaugurate the freshly redesigned spaces of the Institute of Islamic Culturesrue Léon in 18^e district of Paris: “Taking as a starting point the key words transmission, hybridity, know-howheritage, matrimony, rituals and gestures, the journey is nourished by my childhood memories, of these summers spent with my family in the big cities as well as in the countryside of Morocco observing the agile hands of my aunts and great-aunts . »

The gesture is, for Sonia Recasens, indelible: “Massaging and exfoliating bodies, kneading bread dough, washing and folding household linen, preparing henna ointment… Wrinkled and tattooed hands, which take care of houses and bodies , performing daily rituals in the privacy of the domestic space. »

Richness of techniques, patterns, materials…

Bringing together know-how and creativity under the same banner, “L’esprit du geste” summons 17 artists from all over the world – from Morocco to Lebanon, via Tunisia, Uzbekistan and even Afghanistan. Between various techniques, motifs, materials and ancestral stories, the works presented annihilate the clichés about craftsmanship by placing tradition in the center. The gesture freezes in the workshop photos of Sara Ouhaddou (born in 1986) in Morocco and Tunisia; while he petrifies in theinstallation specially designed for the ICI by Salima Naji (born in 1971), who ennobles the raw earth by revealing the hand marks (Matbouaates, footprints, what remains2024).

Hand-to-hand with matter

In Tissekmoudine, a ksar in southern Morocco, Amina Agueznay (born in 1963) worked with weaversof the days from which she woven her series “Portail” (2022), the motifs of which represent the gates of this fortified village. A video titled Draâ x Draâ (2024) shows how these textile goldsmiths take measurements with their bodies: this gesture is called draa (“the cubit”).

The body, fully engaged, is also at work in the “pottery” choreographies by Selma and Sofiane Ouissi (Laaroussa2013); he catches his breath in a sublime glass installation (Siniya d’El Aaroussa by Sara Ouhaddou, 2024) imagining what a bridal ritual tray from ancient times [ill. en Une].

Nomadic and mixed traditions

Very rich, the rhythmic journey in seven sections proves that this know-how knows no borders. We enjoy admiring hybrid caftansmixing Kufi calligraphy and Soviet motifs, by the Uzbek artist Dilyara Kaipova (born in 1967), or to note the surprising proximity between the origami-style markers of the Tatar Nazilya Nagimova (born in 1982) and the collages of the Franco-Turkish Nil Yalter (born in 1938) separated by 44 years and more than 3,000 km.

Mixed, mixed, always on the edge and outside the frame, the works address both the identity issues thancultural appropriationlike the shimmering canvases, between painting, drawing, weaving collage and small mirrors, by Nadira Husain (born in 1980) whose father is Indian and mother is Breton.

The over-representation of the “weaker sex” in this exhibition is enough to understand that the gesture, judged as less “noble”, is largely a women’s business. As evidenced by this “gesture” offered by one woman to another: the Algerian Samta Benyahia (born in 1949) seized a motive ofa dress from her mother to make it his moucharabiehits refuge which takes the form of a large blue rose window adorning the last room of the exhibition, from the walls to the windows of the Institute of Islamic Cultures. Sublime song of gestures…