Even the Dust remains

Even The Dust Remains invites us to delve into the history of war, politics and aesthetics through deliberately contemporary forms of expression. 

During his residency in the In Flanders Fields Museum in 2015, the Franco-Moroccan artist Mehdi-Georges Lahlou used various media. Without being concerned about hierarchy, his works combine photography, video, sculpture, the performing arts, etc. In this case, he has concentrated on bringing two cultures together which are haunted by the ravages that any conflict entails. ‘Grenadier’, ‘SPICY, turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, henna’ and ‘Of the Confused Memory’ set the scene for the troubles which are inherent in anything that survives. In anything which rises again, disappears and challenges any death threat. 

Finding the balance between Muslim culture and Catholic culture, Mehdi-Georges Lahlou vigorously and enthusiastically portrays tensions that co-exist, thereby glorifying stylistic, but also moral liberties, up to a new level, thereby remaining indifferent towards the fundamentalism which we see today. Questioning the male and the female, he shakes up prevailing ideas, he illustrates bodily and mental  scenes, sometimes an idiot or a poet, sometimes a dancer or a witness. An agile, demanding, uncompromising witness. 

Born in Les Sables d’Olonne, France, in 1983, Mehdi-Georges Lahlou lives and works in Brussels and Paris. After studying at the Ecoles des Beaux-Arts in Quimper and then Nantes, he travelled the globe and he denounces, not without mocking, the vicissitudes of our time. He believes the self-portrait decides the destiny of the battles we must wage. He has been exhibiting for nearly ten years now.

Read more in the book Mehdi-Georges Lahlou, published on this occasion by Editions Le Bord de l’Eau – Collection La Muette and the In Flanders Fields Museum, 160 p., with articles by Pierre Giquel, Stéphane Léger, Bernard Marcelis and Barbara Vanderlinden, 24 euro.