Abdelkader Benchamma

Born 1975 in Mazamet, France, lives and works in Paris and Montpellier, France 

Abdelkader Benchamma adopts different approaches in his drawings, at times moving across a sheet of paper with the meticulous strokes of an engraver, other times over a wall with lavish gestures that appropriate the space. He is inspired by literature, philosophy, and astrophysics. Benchamma studied Fine Art at Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris. He has had solo exhibitions at Power Plant, Toronto (2023), Collection Lambert, Avignon (2020), Le Centquatre, Paris (2018), and exhibited at Centre Pompidou, Paris (2024); Lago Algo, Mexico (2023); Sharjah Biennial (2017); Drawing Centre, New York (2015); and Mathaf, Doha (2010). He was nominated for the Prix Marcel Duchamp (2024) and is recipient of the Occitanie-Médicis Prize (2018) and Paris-based Drawing Now Prize (2015).

Between Each Sky

Between Each Sky is composed of a large drawing made directly on the walls overlaid with animated projections that create an immersive space between the spiritual and the geological. Evoking sentiments of ascension and continuous transformation, the work surrounds seven columns from Makkah al-Mukarramah, not only symbols of elevation, but also resonating with the important number seven, mentioned frequently in the Qur’an: “As He who created the seven heavens, one above the other.”
(chapter Al-Mulk, 67:3). 

The material history of the columns, which come from the Haram Mosque in Makkah, is made of a sedimentary rock composed of billions of shells that have resorbed over thousands of years, holding the world’s memory. The artist connects these seven celestial strata to the layered astrophysical arrangement of the planets, which are placed within the greater solar system, which is in a galaxy, which is part of a supercluster, and so on. This reality is mirrored here as a mise en abyme of earth strata.