Le Monde d’Aïcha

Aïcha has been through a good deal: having come to France as an adopted child, she grew up there in difficult circumstances. Today she lives on Mallorca and has thrown herself with complete consistency into the adventure of painting. Her pictures are immediate, undisguised – as far as the artist’s biography is concerned, they are marked by a deep authenticity that invites viewers to immerse themselves in the circumstances of her life. The figures on the large-format pictures of more recent date meet us life-size, seeking dialogue with us at eye level. Aïcha paints her story off her soul. In her pictorial world she returns to her childhood and youth, masters the things of everyday life, orchestrates the small stories. And yet in the background something threatening, almost a sombre mood, can always be sensed. The composition seems classical in this, the interaction of the pictorial elements is conceived with complete formal assurance, the motifs communicate themselves directly to the viewer. Aïcha could have been an outstanding protagonist of Art Brut, yet she paints in the here and now, so that her powerful pictorial language can only be called sensational.

World premiere:
The Beauty of Diversity, Albertina modern, Vienna, 16/2 – 18/8/2024