Abdelkader Benchamma
Landscape of the Fall – Netherlands
The Het Noordbrabants Museum dedicates its very first exhibition in the Netherlands to Abdelkader Benchamma from November 16, 2024. For the occasion, the artist connects some of his works with the tradition of Dutch masters such as Jheronimus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel.
With large, drawn installations, Abdelkader Benchamma (Mazamet, 1975) creates a connection with the time and works of Bruegel and followers of Jheronimus Bosch. Specifically for the museum, he is creating a new work on-site. The boundaries of time and space seem to disappear, transporting you to new, hidden worlds.
Benchamma’s large artworks transform the museum halls into a space that seems to evoke various memories. He uses ink to create the paintings directly on the walls, turning them into what feel like otherworldly realms.
Benchamma’s inspiration aligns with works from the museum’s collection, such as The Temptation of Saint Anthony, inspired by Jheronimus Bosch. Benchamma also selected a few black-and-white engravings by Bruegel for the exhibition. These works are also on display, allowing old and new to truly blend together. Additionally, other pieces, including drawings, animations, and lithographs, will also be on view.
Trees of miracles – Ecriture
The artist
Born in 1975 in Mazamet (France), Abdelkader Benchamma lives and works in Paris and Montpellier.
A graduate of the Beaux-Arts de Montpellier and the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris, his preferred medium is drawing.
Nourished by literature, philosophy and astrophysics, his drawn installations continually challenge exhibition spaces, becoming, in his words, “spaces of resonance”, conducive to the summoning of memories, both individual and collective, geological and spiritual.
His vast ephemeral frescoes are painted directly onto walls with ink, transforming architecture into an otherworld, a world of flux and mental landscapes, between the recognizable and the indiscernible, on the border between the physical and the symbolic. Reflecting on the workings of perception, his works explore our systems of knowledge, the survival of myths and beliefs, but also reminiscences, retinal or neuronal persistence, whether on museum walls or sheets of paper.
