Sang d’Encre, 2009
from a series of six photographs, 40 x 40 cm
courtesy of the artist

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Nine things you need to know about ISMAÏL BAHRI:

1. Born in Tunis in 1978,
2. he studied at the Tunis Institute of Fine Arts,
3. and at the Sorbonne in Paris where he got a Ph.D in Arts
4. his works take various forms, going from drawing to video, from photography to installations
5. for each of his projects he develops a framework that allows him to observe and capture subtle and ephemeral phenomena
6. he uses ordinary familiar objects such as milk, paper, glasses, bowls, pins, strings but he has a predilection for ink that he uses as an element of appearance and infusion: In Sang d’encre for instance, I drop small doses of ink on the skin; it starts infiltrating the pores, the wrinkles and cracks. This graphic approach cannot be dissociated from organic secretions. I explore the body through its cracks as if I would draw from the inside of the skin itself in order to reveal a hidden interiority
7. in his work, you can often find the precision of a repeated, elaborate, filmed, scrutinized movement, but this precise movement initiates a flight and carries in itself the germs of the immeasurable
8. and good news: his next solo exhibition will open on Thursday 3 May 2012 at Les Filles Du Calvaire in Paris
9. he now lives and works between Paris and Tunis

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