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Ghyzlène Boukaïla
Born in Algiers in 1993, Ghyzlène lives and works between Marseille and Algiers. Her visual and filmic practice questions the porous zones between reality and fiction. Her work has been presented at the Institut du Monde Arabe, the Tampere Film Festival in Finland, the Rencontres International Paris/Berlin, the JAOU Contemporary Art Biennial in Tunis, and at 100% Villette.
Between speculative fictions and immersive devices, Ghyzlène's work explores liminal territories: places of waiting, transit and anonymity, as active foci of memory and resistance. Drawing on documentary research rooted in postcolonial and anthropocentric narratives, Ghyzlène develops fragmented forms in which new readings of reality can emerge.
Inner sea desire (working title) is a film in the making. Going beyond the cinematographic framework, this project opens up to other forms, creating augmented annexes to the film. Inner sea desire takes as its starting point the itinerary of Yoyo, a border-crosser and smuggler, whose practice of clandestine crossing becomes the driving force behind a narrative of exploration and reappropriation of maritime space.
The intention of this project is to reappropriate the dominant narratives of exploration, imbued with romanticism, by exploring a dialogue between the practices of North African privateers of the XVIIᵉ century and those of a border-crosser. Replacing the practices of the protagonist with those of a figure of insubordination; transforming piracy into a practice of political resistance to displacement.
During the art explora residency, the aim is to extend this research towards a speculative cartography of displacement at sea, through a corpus of materials; sculptural objects, videos and archives.
