DIVINE COMEDIE - 2016/2017

Object and Sculpture

Description

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Divine Comédie
 (2016)
prayer rug, embroidery, framed
57 × 33.5 cm (Children size)
Unique, 3 version + 1 AP
115 x 77,5  (Adult size)
Unique, 3 version + 1 AP

Divine Comédie is composed of prayer mats, arranged in a triptych to resemble an ancient retable. The artist incorporates new elements, including the cross of the Knights Templar.

These Christian features make the prayer rug un t for use. As many of his works demonstrate, the alchemy resulting from the combination of different religious references reduces their cultural value to zero. Objects then re-acquire their basic status as objects, like the prayer rug which here is just a piece of cloth, and the Templar’s Cross, here a simply decorative motif.

Mehdi-Georges Lahlou also plays with spontaneous associations. Faced with the embroidered text on the central rug, an observer free from Arabophobia will suppose that
it is a quotation from the Koran. In fact, Lahlou has transcribed into Arabic an extract from the Lord’s Prayer, the fundamental prayer of Christians. This inversion creates a surprise and urges the viewer to reflect. A language, a script, says the artist, is just a vehicle for communication and can equally well be Christian, Muslim or even secular.

Marie Papazoglou

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