Artist Name: Saddie Choua
Residency Dates: July – October 2022
Hometown: Brussels
Lives & Works: Brussels, Ostend, Tinos
URL: www.saddiechoua.be / www.robinbrussels.be / Instagram: saddiechoua / soundcloud: zami_zami
Education: Sociology VUB Brussels
Bio/Statement:
Am I the only one who is like me? This is a question characteristic of Saddie Choua’s life and work. It problematizes the position of the solitary “I” that is also never disconnected from the other. The power order that conditions the solitary “I”, is another central subject. Where does this otherness sit in the hierarchy of power? Where is her oppression and exploitation concealed or exoticed? Saddie Choua asks us to think about how we consume images and dialogues about the other and how they affect our self-image and historical consciousness. How can we intervene in the images that write our history and conceal social struggle? Do we first have to refute memory to tell another story? Or is the removal or recombining of certain associations and references already sufficient to create a different history and self-image? Saddie Choua’s work can therefore be read as a fragmented self-reflective visual essay that questions the relationship between maker and image. How do you make blind spots that just invite you to forget visible? How to speak and depict differently from a subalternal position, or is it just the concept of “the other” that confines her in dominant images and narratives? She creates a new pseudo-realistic imaginary world that is at once highly recognizable and utterly alien. It is her way of undermining the (visual) language of our media and sharpening the critical and political gaze of her audience.
Saddie Choua is a doctoral researcher at the RITCS film-school in Brussels and a lecturer at St Lucas School of Arts Antwerp and the RITCS. She is part of the artist collective ROBIN. She is one of the laureates of the Belgian Art Prize 2020.
Saddie Choua had solo and group exhibitions including BOZAR, Brussels, 2014; WIELS, Brussels, 2015; Marrakech Biennial, Marrakech, 2016; MU.ZEE, Ostend, 2016; Showroom, St Lucas School of Arts, Antwerp, 2016; KIOSK, Ghent, 2017; Festival Concreto, Fortaleza, 2017; Kooshk-Air Antwerp, Tehran, 2018; Kanal-Centre Pompidou, Brussels, 2018-2019; Savvy Contemporary, Berlin, 2018; Akademie der Künste der Welt, Cologne, 2018; Villa Empain, Brussels, 2018; Contour Biennal, Mechelen, 2019, Biennale Warszawa, Warsaw, 2019; La Veronica Gallery, Modica, 2020; Les Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, 2020; Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, Paris, 2020; Temporary Gallery, Cologne, 2020; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, 2020; Extra City, Antwerp, 2021; Kunstverein Hamburg 2021; Kadist, Paris, 2021; Undercurrent Gallery, NYC, 2021, Möllerei, ZKM, Center for art and media Karlruhe in collaboration with Esch 2022 European Capital of Culture, Esch-sur-Alzette, 2022.
She did residencies at WIELS (Brussels); Vrijstaat O.(Ostend); La Cité internationale des arts (Paris); Casa do Careca (Icaraí); Akademie der Künste der Welt (Cologne); Kooshk (Tehran); Kunsthal Gent.
Her work is in national and international private and public collections including Kanal – Centre Pompidou – MuZEE.
Support: Saddie Choua’s residency is made possible with support from the Flanders State of the Art.
