Speedy Wash #9: Hamza Halloubi & Wafae Ahalouch el Keriasti

Description

Le temps des Erreurs
(Time of Errors)

The title of the installation by Wafae Ahalouch el Keriasti (b. 1978, Tangier, Morocco; lives and works in Amsterdam) and Hamza Halloubi (b. 1982, Tangier, Morocco; lives and works in Brussels) in the Speedy Wash laundrette, refers to a novel by Mohamed Shukri. The title is like an invitation to a journey: a journey from text to image, from Choukri's book to the St-Denis Square, from personal trajectory to collective experience.
Wafae Ahalouch el Keriasti's work occupies the entire wall with a large painted composition enhanced with reliefs in wood and cardboard. The artist combines circular geometric shapes with figurative elements, creating a dynamic  composition that resemble clocks: a machine that creates its own time, confronting the dynamics of the Saint-Denis square
In the windowcase, Hamza Halloubi exhibits a sculpture : in a school desk, he pierced the words: ROSES SANS NOMS NOMS SANS ROSES (roses without names without roses). The poetics of the sentence comes from the repetition of the words, introducing poetical disorder in an "institutional", serious object. Outside, a sentence on the upper panel reads AU LIEU DE CREUSER EN MOI, J'AI PRÉFÉRÉ FAIRE UNE TROUÉE DANS LE MONDE (Instead of digging inside me, I preferred to make a hole in the world). The subjective and intimate sentence is loaded with a particular meaning and impact through its direct confrontation with the public space of the Saint-Denis Square.