Youssef Nabil - De rêver encore

Since the 1990s, French-Egyptian photographer and videographer Youssef Nabil, born in 1972, has been building a body of work with a very strong visual identity, to which the Musée d'Orsay has made a decisive contribution. His first visit to France and his discovery of the museum's collections in 1992 remain a source of inspiration that has permeated his work for more than thirty years, as illustrated by the self-porrait The Dream (2021), which echoes Puvis de Chavannes' Le Rêve. Youssef Nabil's exhibition, which makes him the first artist to take over the Orientalist gallery, is an opportunity to put his works into perspective with those that have influenced him within this space, which, along with symbolism, forms the heart of this aesthetic connection.

 

The black-and-white silver prints, enhanced using an ancient hand-coloring technique by Youssef Nabil, evoke the glorious, fantasized Egypt of his childhood-the artist's country of birth-and conjure up visual atmospheres with velvety tones. His work, which draws on the registers of dreams and nostalgia, seeks to move beyond purely identity-based questions to embody a borderless, fantasized, and idealized Mediterranean world. In the artist's eyes, Egypt is the setting for a sensual and consensual Orientalism, with images that reflect its codes: warm, acid colors, bathed in a peaceful atmosphere of desires and dreams, depicting a free Orient, without prohibitions or censorship.

 

In addition to Orientalism, the aesthetics of the refined settings, evoking plain blues and whites with transparent effects, reflect the artist's Symbolist influences. The themes of exile, rebirth, and dreams are omnipresent in his work. The back views of his self-portraits, though faceless, are tinged with melancholy and maintain an air of mystery. The exhibition follows the chronological journey of a contemporary artist in five major stages, interwoven with transhistorical references. The rich collection of 19th-century photographs of expeditions to Egypt opens the exhibition with a distinction between artistic production in the East and Orientalism.

 

Building on this historical foundation, the exhibition reveals works relating to the artist's youth, then his first encounter with the Musée d'Orsay during his first trip to France in 1992, the third stage of the journey mobilizing figures who were mentors to him, such as Pierre Puvis de Chavanne and Odilon Redon. The penultimate room is devoted to the intersecting identities represented by Nabil, on both sides of the Mediterranean, borrowing symbols from the East and West in syncretic creations. Finally, two videos by the artist are screened in a room that echoes the artist's passion for the medium of film.