15 Questions With… Ben Slama Safouane

Ben Slama Safouane takes part in our 15 Questions With... interview series, sharing his most recent project, I prefer when it’s real.

How are you at the moment?

Mentally, I feel good. I just came back from a beautiful personal exhibition in Tunis and I came back full of love. Physically I am exhausted, I am slowly recovering from lumbago. I believe you can’t have it all.

What is your morning ritual? How does your day begin?

Since this summer I have been waking up quite sporty, I am doing some exercises to tone up my day. Then I start with a large glass of water and a breakfast that oscillates between cereals or Swedish breads.

What, right now, can you see?

A Cuban cigar, my ashtray and a book, To die before appearing by Rémi David. A novel that tells a love story of the writer Jean Genet.

What artist, project, or book would you recommend we see/follow?

The Tunisian artist, Malek Gnaoui, really impress me by his immersive works. Charlotte el Moussaed is doing great things; I really enjoy the subtlety in her pictures and videos. Hajer Ben Boubaker and her podcast Vintage Arab where she talks about arab music. Jehane Mahmoud really inspired me with the tenderness that emanates from her pictures. One of the most important artist for me is Steve McQueen and I love his book, Carib’s Leap/Western Deep—I often come back to it.

Tell us about your process when starting a new project.

It is a collection of intuition, feeling, experience and readings. For example, for my project in the Maghreb, I remembered the decrepit walls of my childhood in the old Arab city of Tunis. Talking with Moroccan and Algerian friends in Paris, I seemed to draw space from a common experience of beauty in the dilapidated. At the same time, I discovered Junichiro Tanizaki’s work, Praise of the Shadow, in which he describes, in his opinion, what makes things beautiful in Japan. His work meets my perceptions, so I decided to travel through Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia to confront my presentiments.

Finally, during this trip, I had an incredible encounter, which disrupted my work and vision of things. A group of young teenagers in Algiers meet regularly at a specific place in the city because from this point of view, the city is beautiful. I think it was a real aesthetic shock for me, since I work more and more on the question of the bond, the tenderness, and the love between individuals.

What has been your favourite collaboration?

When I work with my dear friend, the curator Elsa Delage.

What is your greatest achievement?

My father, before passing, told me that he was proud of my brother and I.

What is your greatest regret?

No time for regrets, like a classical French rap song:

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Trust yourself, be confident.

What is your latest project about?

My latest project, I prefer when it’s real, was made in collaboration with curator Camille Martin during a residency for the Contemporary Art Center of Brétigny. In this project, I wanted to take on the question of love and tenderness, in the streets of Parisian suburbs. I imagined it as a starting point, as the foundations of something more political. I wanted to capture a real tenderness—a real loneliness. With using models, I might have been able to portray stronger gestures, but I liked the idea that this love is sometimes brushed against the invisible, that it only exists for those who want it and know where to look. It was a way of approaching our common experience—these small moments which are common to us.

What are you researching at the moment?

I am currently obsessed with flora and the rhythm of the seasons. All these colours throughout the year obsess me. I also work particularly with blue, the blue that I love so much in the Mediterranean Sea but also in Blues music. Finally, I am looking for sea songs all over the Mediterranean sea, for a new project that I hope to realise soon.

What can you not work without?

Without the love and support of my friends and family.

What challenges have you faced working in your industry?

I believe that one of the most recurrent is racism, this feeling of not being perceived for what we are but for what we could represent in the imaginary world of racists.

What are you hoping for in 2023?

I would like to shoot the video installations that I have written and to initiate two projects that I have had in mind for some time.

Share a song with us, what are you listening to at the moment?

Grinnin’ in your face by Son House, particularly this version.

(Editor’s note: Listen to this song and other favourites from the ’15 Questions With…’ interview series with our Spotify playlist!)