During my studies and my research, I struggled to identify myself with artists or art movements, and to find texts and articles about the issues that interested me. There was always something that wouldn’t fit, especially at the generational level. By inventing this term and by using it to define my work and my research, I hoped that art, fashion, architecture, design, creative writing students – or whatever their field – who feel close to this notion and this ‘movement’ would take its ownership to reference more easily their work.
I wanted a word that would sound strong and be easy to remember. The postfix core used mainly in music was fit for both functions. ‘Beurcore’ is the culture of young diaspora from Maghrebi origins living in France in its most emblematic expression. But I imagined it as well as an existing movement that hasn’t been properly defined yet, except by the catch-all expression of ‘urban culture’. It’s at once what is created and what is consumed by this community.
'Beurcore' is the culture of young diaspora from Maghrebi origins living in France in its most emblematic expression.
Top image: Sara Sadik, 'Carnalito', 2020 ©SaraSadik
It’s about phenomena: dressing habits, music styles, languages and symbols that connect several persons simultaneously. For example, I have worked for a long time on the Thai soccer jersey that represents for me a beurcore symbol. The irruption of this 90-minute fluo jerseys minted with the Thai national team’s logo that we saw everywhere in France since 2014, symbolizes the dream of escape, the massive exodus of suburban youth towards Thailand during 2014-2015 and it even ended in movie theaters with the film of Franck Gastambide Pattaya.
My ‘beurness’ is a reflection of such diasporic scheme. A Moroccan and an Algerian culture that went through many losses and alterations. An amount of polishing and amendment in order to integrate itself and to avoid being too parochial. But also, alliances born from the contact with pop and mass French culture. This gave birth to a hybrid identity that would add a French touch to your pronunciation, you would wear a typical Djellaba with Air Max, and you would dance Arabic ‘Shaabi’ while listening to French rapper Jul. I retranslate this hybridity, this beurness in my creative process.
Return to the exhibition page here
Khtobtogone follows Zine, a young man who is going to ask his girlfriend’s hand as he goes through the process of becoming a better version of himself.
Khtobtogone depicts the emotional roller-coasters of politics infused in Zine’s daily life, as a young French working-class man from the Maghrebi diaspora. The video also captures the battles and struggles he has to go through in order to regain self-confidence and self-love.
All the texts are inspired by real-life stories of Ahmed Ra’ad Al Hamid and Brian Chiappetta.
Khtobtogone, 2021
Video, 16m09s
Commissioned by CNAP
Courtesy of Sara Sadik and Galerie Crèvecoeur
Video
Khtobtogone (excerpt) - Sara Sadik, Khtobtogone, 2021, Video, 16m09s, Commissioned by CNAP, Courtesy of Sara Sadik and Galerie Crèvecoeur
@sarasadikofficiel
sarasadik.hotglue.me
In 2018, she received her MFA with the highest honors possible, from École des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux, France. Her work has been shown internationally at Frac PACA, Marseille and Palais de Tokyo, Paris in 2019, Karma International, Zurich, Art Athina Fair, Athens and MoMA Warsaw for Open’er Festival, Gdynia in 2017.
Sara Sadik is inspired by what she terms ‘beurcore’: the youth culture developed by working-class members of the French-Maghrebi diaspora. Her work brings together video, performance, installation and photography in order to explore beurcore’s manifestations, while her references span music, language, fashion, social networks and science fiction. These narratives, in which the artist is regularly featured, often document and analyze beurcore’s social and aesthetic symbols. Starting from semiological and sociological analyses of the ‘beurness’, Sadik goes on to hijack these social clichés by deconstructing and reintegrating them into fictions.
Related Topics
Community Spirit
2021
