LEIKUN NAHUSENAY
Body VS Soul V, 2018
Leikun Nahusenay
Tapestry
100 x 140cm
Laureate of the Passages residency, the multidisciplinary artist, Leikun Nahusenay experiments, tries, mixes and mixes different techniques he has acquired (wood engraving, collages, painting, graphics, photography...) in order to find a subtle balance in harmony between his Ethiopian origins and his various travel memories , including Marseilles.
Body vs Soul
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Typology
Production residency
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Duration
8 weeks
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Destination
Marseilles
AAF presentation
Co-production
Neolice
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"During my residency, I mixed my Ethiopian experiences with those lived in Marseille. It was the first time that I made a large tapestry of 100 x 140 cm from one of my drawings. I learned to work with digital tools, whereas in my culture it is common to work weaving by hand. Working on a tapestry in Aubusson – which has a long history of weaving in France and around the world -, allowed me to reflect more about the fabric, the traditions between these two regions Marseille and Addis Ababa. In the future, I would like to continue to work more often with textiles."
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The work "Body versus Soul V" enriches a series started by the artist in 2015.
Leikun Nahusenay says he was inspired by a young woman waiting for her boyfriend in a cafe in Addis Ababa. The boyfriend never came and the artist saw the young woman there sitting in that café, her mind elsewhere. He will then begin a series of portraits of faceless women: Body vs Soul.
In the background, the artist explores the shapes of the checkerboard and barcodes that he incorporates as a regular motif in his works.
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“Body vs Soul V” was designed in tapestry in collaboration with a weaver at the Néolice factory, according to the Aubusson stitch tradition.
© Making of: Eyes & Ears, South Slope.
"I try to represent disconnection: how our body and our soul are sometimes separated. In some situations, our body may be present, but our soul/spirit is wandering elsewhere."
in partnership with
Neolice
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Néolice continues the tradition of Aubusson weaving while providing access to the digital revolution, whether in image processing or weaving.
It is an innovative digital process, the result of long research and delicate development that allows Néolice to substitute a digital drawing for traditional cardboard.
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