Latifa Echakhch
Born in El Khnansa, Morocco, 1974. Lives and works in Martigny, Switzerland. Born in Morocco and raised in France, Latifa Echakhch mines cultural materials as subject matters for her work. By deconstructing and re-presenting everyday objects Echakhch creates sharp witted installations that challenge cultural assumptions. She describes herself as a Romantic at heart, and her works, halfway between conceptualism and surrealism, and often taking the form of installations and compositions of found objects, might indeed be abstracted as romantic ready-mades, for they emphasize imagination, emotion and introspection. She is the fourth woman to win the Prix Marcel Duchamp, France’s most prestigious award for contemporary art, since its creation in 2000. During the past decade her work has been presented at Level 2 Gallery at Tate Modern in London (2008); Kunsthalle Fridericianum in Kassel (2009); GAMeC of Bergamo, FRI ART of Fribourg, MACBA of Barcelona and FRAC Champagne-Ardenne in Reims (2010); Museum Haus Esters, Kunstmuseen, Krefeld (2011); Kunsthaus of Zürich (2012); MAC of Lyon (2013); Centre Pompidou of Paris (2014); Museums Boijmans Van Beuningen of Rotterdam, NMAM, of Monaco and Kiosk of Gent (2018). Photo by Reinhard Haider. Image courtesy of the artist and DVIR Gallery, Bruxelles/Tel Aviv