"The thick peel blows out under the power of inner turmoil. A new freedom is coming."
And time comes to caesura for a moment, as if pendulous on the art of Emna Masmoudi. The exposition Sur le fil (On the wire) presents numerous recent works on canvas, paper and sculpture, initiated in 2010.
Born in Mahdia,Tunisia, Emna Masmoudi belongs to that generation of women artists who emerged on the Tunisian scene in the 1990's. Graduated from the Fine Arts School of Paris and holding a Master of Visual Arts, she pursues her training as an artist in residence at the Cité des Arts in Paris. Swiftly, her work reached a wide audience. Her very first exhibitions in Tunisia brought her not only a local success, but also greater visibility abroad. Since then, she has been regularly participating in exhibitions in Europe, the United States, the Middle East, etc. In 2003, she was awarded the first prize of painting from the Tunisian Ministry of Culture. She has been represented by Elmarsa in numerous international art fairs and her work can be found in prestigious public and private collections worldwide such as the Ministry of Culture in Tunisia and the Farjam Collection in Dubai.
Hovering between abstraction and figuration, her pictorial work mirrors a unique look that rubs out the stylistic boundaries to open a new dimension. Her figures emerge from the matter in levity. The creative impulse in Emna Masmoudi's is autobiographical. It is a life story, a feeling to an event that she transcribes into her art. Her carved characters are a reminiscence of Giacometti, especially coming to threadlike characters, small expressive heads on never-ending legs. Further, her interest about Germaine Richier reads in the way to assume the metal structure of the sculpture so that it becomes an integral part thereof.
The wire is the structure to her sculptures, feathery and spirited, while echoing the line of her drawings, vibrant and intense. This wire is a boundary in space, one that delimits the here and the elsewhere. It further embodies the time being ceased at that moment according to which there will be a before and an after - An impalpable widespread border that escapes to reach. In a hint, Emna Masmoudi gives records of her feelings regarding her country in transition. The prime sealed Grenades suddenly explode in a burst of juice soaked seeds. The thick peel blows out under the power of inner turmoil. A new freedom is coming.
This very personal exhibition of Emna Masmoudi tells us, primarily, about herself with a tremendous love for her characters. They do not fall down; they struggle with strength and unyielding hope. All of which sprinkled by wit. After leaving Emna Masmoudi's universe, we find, smiling, the wire of time a little lighter...