Youssef Boubekeur seeks to reveal, with the precision of his monochrome brushstroke of universal blue, the interior shades of light and shadow, defying the divisions between man and animal to trace behavioral analogies and remind us that the path from savagery to civilization is not always linear. His work questions the human condition in the light of animal otherness. Domesticating the animal within us, reestablishing a sense of belonging, an imperative addressed to humanity in an age of hypermodernity that promotes the reign of the instinctual and encourages predation.
The expressive power of the blue monochrome
The animal, like the human being, is a social being, living among others, and the artist seeks to trace what connects within the living species. His portraits of animals adorned with human attire capture a gaze, an attitude, a story, a way of being-in-the-world, an identity woven by the otherness that plays with ambivalences. The nuances of blue, with the power of monochrome, reveal all the behavioral duality that transcends classifications. Drawing is a way to explore the soul and its torments: the superposition of lines gives narrative depth to the characters, who appear in the fragility of their singular history, then reveal themselves to the gaze in all their density, their complexity and their paradoxes, summoning us to a disturbing face-to-face encounter in a game of mirrors on the interior. Anthropomorphic illusion or exchange between Man and Animal that brings each of us to civilize?
The drawing: lines to emphasize the continuity between the animal species and the human species
Youssef Boubekeur’s work questions both the human part of the animal and the animal part of the human. «Man is an animal locked in his cage,» wrote Paul Valéry, and this statement is an inspiration for the artist, who brings the question of identity outside of the divisions. The artist’s work on the gaze is essential: it is a window onto the intimate and the expressive power suggests the torment of the unconscious conflicts between the wild instinct and the sublimation that humanizes. Are we of the same species, humans sometimes struggling with our primitive beastliness, animals capable of empathy? In the series We Are One Family, Youssef Boubekeur has drawn families of animals, between transmission and fraternity. Through the gazes and gestural postures, the artist makes it possible to glimpse how trust is built, the foundation of welcoming an Other, who then ceases to be considered a prey; when the threatening strangeness transforms into a familiar belonging. The viewer will be able to weave their own narrative of the singular encounters that defy the divisions between species. For Man is distinct from the animal not so much by his behavior, but by a language that breaks free from the code to unfold into narrative, with the access to symbolism and the quest for meaning that this entails, and this is where his unease lies.
A resonance with the current period’s hallmarks: waiting, confinement, or captivity?
Youssef Boubekeur’s work has resonated in a particularly special way in this period of suspended time, inspiring the series Waiting, portraits of animals in waiting whose gaze and features could be ours. The confinement has been able to seem, in a certain sense, to the experience of the horrors of captivity, in which the confrontation between the animal and civilized parts took on an unprecedented and singular dimension. Man deprived of his way of life, of his sociability, as the captive animal can be of its natural environment, loses its bearings and its horizon, finds itself stuck in a waiting state without prospects, like a lion in a cage, struggling with the insane. Will the concern for the Other open itself to the paradoxical lessons that come from the animal world?
The place of the animal and its relationship with Man in different cultures, an inspiration for the artist
Youssef Boubekeur has been interested in the way different countries in the world, different cultures, have historically lived alongside the felines, symbols of the wild animal. These have sometimes been adorned with human ornaments, depicted in different myths and narratives. The paradox that has sometimes led to the extinction of species to protect human life, or the sacred status of tigers in India, to whom funeral rituals were organized similar to those of loved ones, has greatly inspired a work that essentially tells the story of a place in the world to be shared. In his latest series, the artist has enhanced the monochrome blue of wax or gold leaf. The appearance of gilding in the work marks a reflection on sacredness. In his latest series, Animal Sacré, Youssef Boubekeur draws this Other precious, in the spirit of the continuity of animal and human species. The animal has nourished the fictional imagination of civilizations and linked humans through myths whose function is to take on the tragic aspects of the human condition through symbolism. These emblematic animals around which ritual practices or beliefs have been transmitted, the artist sanctifies them by adorning them with gold to sublimate and emphasize their beauty, while many are threatened with extinction. A way to remind Man of his responsibilities towards the living.
A graceful and mysterious femininity
This work on the sacralization of the animal, in the work of Youssef Boubekeur, takes on the contours of femininity, because undoubtedly it is this feminine part that fascinates, eludes, arouses desire and evokes fear of absence. Feline, graceful, with tall and elegant finery, femininity is crowned with gold leaves and appears majestic, dense with an interiority that remains always mysterious. With great sensitivity, these deities, icons half-feline, half-feminine, sensual and unpredictable, captivate us with their intense gaze and delicate hands as much as with their imperial assurance.
Although the series Animal Sacré features many female figures that the artist wanted to honor, the male felines are also present, and they all invite us together to care for the Other as a jewel to protect and preserve. Without distinction between the animal and the human. Marguerite Yourcenar’s message in a book of interviews, Les Yeux Ouverts, finds echo in the artistic approach of Youssef Boubekeur: «Rather than anthropomorphizing the animal, man has often chosen to sanctify it by animalizing it.». In these interviews, she offers reflections on the human condition, life, and the sacred, inspired by philosophies of the sacred and especially Buddhist principles. She reminds us of how ignorance keeps us in savagery and keeps us from the path of humanization.
Discover the original works and lithographs by Youssef Boubekeur in our collections. The exhibition We Are One Family that we presented in 2019 can be viewed in virtual tour in the dedicated section for the artist.
