Faten Gaddes
Lot #213
Latifa 2013
Digital print on canson paper.
Est. Value: $3,000
This project was initiated in Tunisia and is currently continuing in the United States. The discovery of photo studio backdrop in painted fabric dating from the 1930s. Its vintage trompe-l'oeil in faded colors referred to a timeless, outdated and geographically non-located context. The roaming allowed by this mobile decor has set a simple and spontaneous form of protocol: reaching out to the other to create his/her portrait on this background, sketching a typological portrait of those who make up the social wealth of Tunisia. The series of portraits has continued in the United States since 2018, whose ethnic diversity makes for richness as well as historical and social complexity.
Adherence to American common values does not prevent the partial conservation by newly settled immigrants on American soil of their culture of origin, as evidenced by the generic name hyphenated Americans: Italian-American, Polish-American.
Born in Tunisia in 1974, Faten works in an artistic and political vein, with an emphasis on the duty to memory. In 2012 in Tunis, one of her works symbolizing the violence experienced by women across different religions was destroyed. Faten Gaddes regularly exhibits at Aicha Gorgi Gallery, Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia. In February 2020, Faten Gaddes was part of the New York City Artist Safe Haven Residency program: This initiative is led by a coalition of organizations working to safeguard free expression, and includes Artistic Freedom Initiative, Residency Unlimited, Westbeth Artists Housing and The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation.
Her work is part of the permanent collections of the Tunisian government, the French Agency for Development, the Pierre Berger Foundation, the Luciano Benetton foundation , the Moleskine Foundation, The Kamel Lazaar Foundation and various collectors in Tunisia and abroad.Faten Gaddes lives and work in New York . She is a member of the Visual Art Association based in Tunis.