2016

Travelling, A Tale Of A Tub

Rotterdam, Netherlands

Hamza Halloubi’s (MA, 1982) exhibition puts you on the spot the moment you enter A Tale of a Tub’s space. His exhibition Travelingpresents new and existing video-portraits. Amidst the video installation there seems to be no escape from the piercing, yet mostly volatile glance of the people staring into the heart of Halloubi’s camera lens.

The confrontation with ‘the other’ is a central theme in Halloubi’s short, unedited videos. With a deceptively simple camera movement the artist shifts the position of the observer and the observed, escaping the authority of the camera and the spectator. Halloubi stages a confrontation between two gazes: an exchange of looks between the subject and the audience, between himself and the viewer. In this respect ‘the look’ can be understood as being both that of the camera itself – hence, the look of the filmmaker and by extension the look of the spectator – as well as ‘the look returned’ – the reciprocal gaze of the person being filmed. With his films Halloubi stages those rare moments when two glances encounter each. A moment that is both seductive and violent, undermining the way we look at one another and challenging us to look anew.