VIDEO: Adel Absessemed-Jam Proximus Ardet & Out, Out, Brief Candle (Behind the scenes)

Adel Abdessemed is a French artist of Berber origin. He was born in Constantine, Algeria in 1971. After living in New York, Berlin and London, he now lives in Paris. He uses a wide variety of media such as drawing, sculpture, performance, video and installation. His works, which evoke themes such as war, violence and religion, quickly found an international audience. Darkness versus light, power versus vulnerability: Adel Abdessemed listens to the cry of a faltering world. His challenge –out the figure of the captain, who is none other than the artist himself. Stoic, standing on the deck, seemingly oblivious to the drama unfolding behind and honour – is to serve as an impartial witness. His art, despite or beyond any controversy, is above all an allegory. Consequently, any accusation or fatwa vanishes in the face of the artist’s innocence. Evoking the fragility of all things, the title “Out, Out, Brief Candle” is a famous quote from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. As if responding to this injunction, the artist smashes a candle with his foot in his video “Politics of the Studio, Out, Out, Brief Candle” (2020). In “Jam Proximus Ardet” (2021), the artist also uses fire burning of a ship in the middle of the sea becomes the mausoleum for all the tragedies that have marked the Mediterranean Sea, which both connects and separates the artist’s country of origin from his country of adoption. The title of the work comes from Virgil’s poem the Aeneid, in which the main protagonist realises that the city of Troy is doomed to destruction. The brief video loop breaks with the narrative, opting for a single shot, a flickering image that seems to be coming closer to us. A ship in flames looms on the horizon, we hear the deafening sound of flames devouring the boat… Gradually, we make him, he remains at the helm.