Zoulikha Bouabdellah Moscow, b. 1977

Born in Moscow and raised in Algiers before relocating to France in 1993, where she graduated from ENSBA-Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts Paris-Cergy in 2002, Zoulikha Bouabdellah grew up surrounded by art as the daughter of Hassen Bouabdellah, a film director and author, and Malika Dorbani, former head of the National Museum of Fine Arts of Algiers. Through her multidisciplinary practice, her work combines video, photography, drawing, sculpture, and installation. She directed the 2003 video Dansons acquired by the Centre Pompidou, in which she melds French and Algerian archetypes by executing a belly dance to the French national anthem. In 2005, she participated in Africa Remix at the Centre Pompidou, and three years later in the Tate Modern's festival Paradise Now! Essential French Avant-garde Cinema 1890-2008. Zoulikha Bouabdellah has participated in numerous exhibitions, including at the LACMA Los Angeles, Mori Art Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Menil Collection, the Museum für Moderne Kunst and the Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno. Her installations, video, and drawings question icons, dominant representations, motifs, and ornaments by juxtaposing them to geopolitical dynamics and global issues linked to conflicts, sexuality, or the status of women. This deconstruction of view operates through a reflection upon culture, production, and industrialization. Zoulikha Bouabdellah has been awarded the Abraaj Capital Art Prize, the Prix Meurice pour l'Art Contemporain, and the Villa Medicis Hors les Murs. Her works are part of public and private collections such as the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art, the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, the Barjeel Art Foundation, the Misk Art Institute, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Museu de l'Art Prohibit and the Fonds d’Art Contemporain-Paris Collections. She currently lives and works between Casablanca and Montréal-sur-Gers.