Naïma descendant un escalier, 2017

Single-channel video installation, colour, no sound, 40 sec

In this video, the idea is to continue to use the verticality in video. This led me to reflect on the paintings/pictures of Marcel Duchamp and Gerhard Richter which represent a woman coming down a stairs. I asked Naïma to be in the video and to wear a T-shirt with an image that I sourced from a Black Panthers archive. I like this image of this naked black woman who puts herself in a combative position of resistance. Contrary to Richter’s painting, I wanted to show a woman on a piblic stairs rather than in a domestic setting. And that the representation of the woman is one of resistance in public space and towards/against the masculin gaze and imagination. The video also questions the relationship between painting and video, moving image and still image. Naïma descendant un escalier is presented in loop, and lets the spectator perceive a woman coming down the stairs, not as a sensual body delivered to the gaze but as an affirmation and a political and social presence in the public realm.