SHORT STATMENT

Exploring the real

Elma Riza is a multidisciplinary Franco-Tunisian artist. Based in Berlin since 2007, she graduated from the Higher School of Fine Arts (KHB) in Berlin in 2012 and regularly presents her work at exhibitions and festivals.
Her research deals with various practices and touches on ecology, feminism, anthropology and poetry. This is minimalist poetry, in which the line is both a starting point and a common thread, as much for its graphic potential as for its symbolic and semantic dimension. Inspired by the book ‘A Brief History of Lines’ by the anthropologist Tim Ingold, her research into the line explores the body’s relationship with architecture and our perception of space, leading her to create installations, performances and videos that explore the question of the boundary and its porosity. “This boundary defines our spaces and our relationship with others, between the familiar and the foreign, between the real and the imaginary. The boundary is not the point at which something stops, but rather, as the Greeks observed, the point at which something begins to be (its essence begins…). “_ Anne Marie Charbonneaux et Nobert Hillaire, “œuvre et lieu” 2002

She also questions the hierarchy between human beings and their environment, which leads her to explore the theme of landscape. The urban landscape as a space to be reinvented, or the ‘natural’ landscape as a space to be traversed, with the question: what is landscape, what defines it?

“If the landscape is a scenography or a painting in which our culture expresses itself, we can also think of the landscape as a veil that can hide the world of other cultures from us or, on the contrary, show us the point of contact between our culture and others. Looking at the landscape then means looking for this border and stopping at the threshold of our knowledge: it becomes a way of looking beyond ourselves, of trying to see or catch a glimpse of what is behind the painting, behind the scenography, what we never wanted to know” _ Antonioni, Personage paysage, by Sandro Bernardi

Elma Riza approaches this theme of landscape in a simple and direct way, mainly ‘in situ’, working with elements that belong to the place. More recently, with her video installation ‘Cet autre paysage’ / This other landscape (work in progress, 2024-2025), she has added a participatory dimension, creating the work by collecting descriptions of landscapes from people she meets on her travels.

When you move from line to landscape, there’s bound to be a detour via cartography. This practice has been a feature of her work since 2020. On paper or in space, she explores the notion of cartography and its connection to our perception of space, landscape, topography and walking. “Space is a word we use all the time, but it’s an ambiguous term. I’ll use the term space when I talk about the imaginary construction of our relationship to the world. And I use the term topos when I’m talking about real, geographical, measurable space.” (Hubert Godard)

This practice of walking as a ‘practice of space’ (Michel de Certeau) is part of an approach close to Dadaism or the Situationists. It is a call for an exploration of possibilities, a rewriting of spaces that leaves room for the unexpected and a certain amount of improvisation.

“Space and freedom are expressed in walking, and this knowledge lives in everyone’s imagination (…)”. Richard Long

Its practice of instant composition and experimentation is at the heart of her working method. She often uses scores or game rules, limiting herself to one or two materials per project. This has been the catalyst for her collaborations with other artists, visual artists, musicians and dancer-performers. This transdisciplinary approach also leads her to propose workshops and participatory projects on topics that are close to her heart.

Since 2014, the role of the spectator/visitor has been omnipresent in her work. She offers contemplative spaces in her performances and installations, inviting the viewer to experience a different space-time, in contrast to the pace imposed by our societies.

One of her aspirations for future projects is to continue to place the creative process at the forefront, creating a democratic space for sharing, where the audience becomes part of the process and actively involved. The intention is to rethink the relationship between artist and audience, proposing works of art as spaces for exchange and shared experience.

Berlin, 2025

Rencontre avec Les Débutantes _ Interview 2019

Share this: