Fondazione MAST hosts the largest solo exhibition in Italy of Franco-Algerian artist Mohamed Bourouissa, titled Communautés. Projets 2005-2025. The exhibition includes four series of works – Péripherique, Horse Day, Shoplifters and the previously unseen Hands – that showcase his artistic career from the early days to today.
Through iconic and new works, photographs, films and objects made with industrial materials, Communautés not only journeys through the past two decades of Bourouissa’s career, but also investigates the transformation of photography in today’s world, revealing the complex relationships between individuals and society in an era of profound change.
THE FOUR SERIES
Péripherique (2005-2008) is the series through which Bourouissa’s work gained global recognition. In these images, referencing the canons of painting, the artist stages scenes of great danger and tension, using friends and acquaintances as non-professional actors. Taken just after the 2005 riots in the French banlieues, these photographs give visibility to those usually excluded from history.
Horse Day (2013-2019) documents social stables in a Philadelphia suburb, founded by members of the local African-American community. Here, Bourouissa deconstructs cowboys imagery, long excluded from American equestrian culture due to biases perpetuated particularly by Hollywood cinema and the myth of the Wild West. Horse Day comprises photographic sculptures created by printing images of the stables and their people on car body parts, blending the practice of dressing-up horses with customizing cars and pick-up trucks.
To create Shoplifters (2014), Bourouissa reproduced a series of photographs that he saw displayed at the entrance of a Brooklyn supermarket in 2014. Taken by the store manager as an accusation, the images show the faces of those caught shoplifting, posed with the stolen item. The artist transforms these images, using the trivial nature of the stolen goods (detergents, biscuits, eggs, cheese, fruit, canned food, soft drinks and alcohol) to absolve all the individuals, while denouncing the consumerist poverty of society.
Hands (2025) is Bourouissa’s latest project, presented for the first time to the public at Fondazione MAST. Hands comprises images taken from earlier series, reprinted on plexiglass and mounted against a a metal grid. The hands and gestures in these images overlap the grids, symbol of control and coercion, creating a powerful sense of tension.
Source: MAST
