“BLAME US” SOLO EXHIBITION OF NABIL ANISS CURATED BY EVA VASLAMATZI 

Nabil Aniss’s solo exhibition BLAME US unfolds as a synchronized video installation across the three levels of CYPHER, creating an immersive experience for the viewer. For the first time, Aniss presents a site-specific montage on five screens, composed of excerpts from previous works as well as footage that has not been used before – an idiosyncratic retrospective of his research and the themes that have preoccupied him in recent years.

At the core of Aniss’s practice lies the human and non-human body and the rituals to which it is subjected or to which it subjects itself – specifically the trance tradition of Jebda, encountered in mystical brotherhoods from Morocco, and particularly Meknes, the artist’s city of origin. Through archival footage alongside his own contemporary recordings or choreographed reenactments, Aniss traces the genealogy and significance of these rituals, deliberately distancing them from the constraints of a Western gaze. Concepts such as ecstasy or catharsis give way to processes in which violence, exhaustion, and pain function as intermediate stages toward transformation: the individual body, through a choreographed and disciplined system, becomes a collective organ. The historicity of these traditions – dating back to the 12th century and linked to practices of resistance and insubordination by enslaved bodies against hegemonic forms – intersects with the present moment, which seeks alternative systems of knowledge and justice in the codes and symbols of the past.

Sound creation : Ilias Kampanis
Editing : Benedetta Marchiori
Technical installation: Makis Faros , Nikos Stathopoulos
Graphic design: Ibrahim Swerky
Gallery director : Isavella Kladaki

BLAME US
solo exhibition of Nabil Aniss curated by Eva Vaslamatzi

opening: Thursday 19/02 20:00
duration: 19/02-29/03
opening hours: Thu-Sun: 18:00-21:00

*Eva Vaslamatzi is ARTWORKS Fellow in curating