Dry River Realization Process – First Mock-up / 2011
DRY RIVER
Leaning over the edge of a river, Amine El Gotaibi detected there the reflection of the concept of the Nation-State. The question is in the ordering of the devices because as soon as there was civilization there was a form of state. The contemporary state has a territory, a government and a population. It is the legitimate body of political, legal and fiscal power within its borders. Passionate as usual, El Gotaibi reconstructed models of rivers in the heart of nature. He would dig furrows in the earth or sand in order to place small white figurines. Thanks to the photographic tool and by a demiurge gesture, his reduced models offered him an amplitude of staging. The figurines then become characters repeated in a civilizational multitude. This work on terrestrial matter is a pivotal stage in his work. A symbol of fertility, once dry the river holds the profound memory of the life and abundance it once welcomed. This remaining trace of water's flow becomes a powerful metaphor for residual history. As a starting point for the artist's examination of civilizations, the fate of species, or the elusive notion of time, the visible trace of the former riverbed embodies the persistent, haunting memory of everything that the artist cannot keep from questioning in his practice. The barren earth serves as a testament to former vitality, making the landscape itself a witness to cycles of creation and disappearance. The dry riverbed becomes archive without curator, holding within its contours the ghost of what has been while offering no guarantee of return, no promise that what once flowed will flow again.
read more
DRY RIVER
Leaning over the edge of a river, Amine El Gotaibi detected there the reflection of the concept of the Nation-State. The question is in the ordering of the devices because as soon as there was civilization there was a form of state. The contemporary state has a territory, a government and a population. It is the legitimate body of political, legal and fiscal power within its borders. Passionate as usual, El Gotaibi reconstructed models of rivers in the heart of nature. He would dig furrows in the earth or sand in order to place small white figurines. Thanks to the photographic tool and by a demiurge gesture, his reduced models offered him an amplitude of staging. The figurines then become characters repeated in a civilizational multitude. This work on terrestrial matter is a pivotal stage in his work. A symbol of fertility, once dry the river holds the profound memory of the life and abundance it once welcomed. This remaining trace of water's flow becomes a powerful metaphor for residual history. As a starting point for the artist's examination of civilizations, the fate of species, or the elusive notion of time, the visible trace of the former riverbed embodies the persistent, haunting memory of everything that the artist cannot keep from questioning in his practice. The barren earth serves as a testament to former vitality, making the landscape itself a witness to cycles of creation and disappearance. The dry riverbed becomes archive without curator, holding within its contours the ghost of what has been while offering no guarantee of return, no promise that what once flowed will flow again.
read more
DRY RIVER
Leaning over the edge of a river, Amine El Gotaibi detected there the reflection of the concept of the Nation-State. The question is in the ordering of the devices because as soon as there was civilization there was a form of state. The contemporary state has a territory, a government and a population. It is the legitimate body of political, legal and fiscal power within its borders. Passionate as usual, El Gotaibi reconstructed models of rivers in the heart of nature. He would dig furrows in the earth or sand in order to place small white figurines. Thanks to the photographic tool and by a demiurge gesture, his reduced models offered him an amplitude of staging. The figurines then become characters repeated in a civilizational multitude. This work on terrestrial matter is a pivotal stage in his work. A symbol of fertility, once dry the river holds the profound memory of the life and abundance it once welcomed. This remaining trace of water's flow becomes a powerful metaphor for residual history. As a starting point for the artist's examination of civilizations, the fate of species, or the elusive notion of time, the visible trace of the former riverbed embodies the persistent, haunting memory of everything that the artist cannot keep from questioning in his practice. The barren earth serves as a testament to former vitality, making the landscape itself a witness to cycles of creation and disappearance. The dry riverbed becomes archive without curator, holding within its contours the ghost of what has been while offering no guarantee of return, no promise that what once flowed will flow again.
read more
Mock-up, (166 x 90 x 106 cm) / 2021
Illuminate the Light / Installation of 7 Corten steel sculptures
in the Somerset House Courtyard / 2023
Illuminate the Light / Installation of 7 Corten steel sculptures
in the Somerset House Courtyard / 2023
CIVILIZATION'S STARTING POINT
A dry river sounds like a contradiction in terms, a paradox etched into the landscape. We think of a river, a waterway, as the ultimate original source, the quintessential cradle. It is a source of life that carries with it a flow of microorganisms and thus life itself, a constant symbol of movement and vitality. That which is dry is by no means entirely devoid of life or memory; nevertheless, its matter and current state are relentlessly heading towards an abrupt decline. This silent transformation foregrounds an essential meditation on vulnerability and the ephemeral nature of abundance. The riverbed without water speaks to loss that is both gradual and sudden, to systems that appear permanent until the moment they reveal their fragility. What was taken for granted, the perpetual flow that sustained communities and ecosystems, proves contingent upon conditions that can shift, that can withdraw the gift of water and leave only the shaped earth as evidence of former generosity.
read more
CIVILIZATION'S STARTING POINT
A dry river sounds like a contradiction in terms, a paradox etched into the landscape. We think of a river, a waterway, as the ultimate original source, the quintessential cradle. It is a source of life that carries with it a flow of microorganisms and thus life itself, a constant symbol of movement and vitality. That which is dry is by no means entirely devoid of life or memory; nevertheless, its matter and current state are relentlessly heading towards an abrupt decline. This silent transformation foregrounds an essential meditation on vulnerability and the ephemeral nature of abundance. The riverbed without water speaks to loss that is both gradual and sudden, to systems that appear permanent until the moment they reveal their fragility. What was taken for granted, the perpetual flow that sustained communities and ecosystems, proves contingent upon conditions that can shift, that can withdraw the gift of water and leave only the shaped earth as evidence of former generosity.
read more
CIVILIZATION'S STARTING POINT
A dry river sounds like a contradiction in terms, a paradox etched into the landscape. We think of a river, a waterway, as the ultimate original source, the quintessential cradle. It is a source of life that carries with it a flow of microorganisms and thus life itself, a constant symbol of movement and vitality. That which is dry is by no means entirely devoid of life or memory; nevertheless, its matter and current state are relentlessly heading towards an abrupt decline. This silent transformation foregrounds an essential meditation on vulnerability and the ephemeral nature of abundance. The riverbed without water speaks to loss that is both gradual and sudden, to systems that appear permanent until the moment they reveal their fragility. What was taken for granted, the perpetual flow that sustained communities and ecosystems, proves contingent upon conditions that can shift, that can withdraw the gift of water and leave only the shaped earth as evidence of former generosity.
read more
Mock-up, (166 x 90 x 106 cm) / 2021
Illuminate the Light / Installation of 7 Corten steel sculptures
in the Somerset House Courtyard / 2023
Illuminate the Light / Installation of 7 Corten steel sculptures
in the Somerset House Courtyard / 2023
DECLINE OF THE SOURCE
Dry River is a work in progress that serves as the starting point for Amine El Gotaibi's current work and has given birth to many of his projects. The riverbed, whether actually dry or symbolically emptied through the artist's miniature reconstructions, functions as generative metaphor that branches into multiple investigations. From this initial observation about water's absence and the traces it leaves, El Gotaibi has developed inquiries into nation-states and their territories, into populations and their governance, into the relationship between abundance and scarcity, presence and absence, vitality and decline. The work operates simultaneously at multiple scales: the intimate gesture of digging furrows in sand, the placement of tiny figurines that become multitudes through photographic manipulation, and the vast conceptual territory these small interventions map.
read more
DECLINE OF THE SOURCE
Dry River is a work in progress that serves as the starting point for Amine El Gotaibi's current work and has given birth to many of his projects. The riverbed, whether actually dry or symbolically emptied through the artist's miniature reconstructions, functions as generative metaphor that branches into multiple investigations. From this initial observation about water's absence and the traces it leaves, El Gotaibi has developed inquiries into nation-states and their territories, into populations and their governance, into the relationship between abundance and scarcity, presence and absence, vitality and decline. The work operates simultaneously at multiple scales: the intimate gesture of digging furrows in sand, the placement of tiny figurines that become multitudes through photographic manipulation, and the vast conceptual territory these small interventions map.
read more
DECLINE OF THE SOURCE
Dry River is a work in progress that serves as the starting point for Amine El Gotaibi's current work and has given birth to many of his projects. The riverbed, whether actually dry or symbolically emptied through the artist's miniature reconstructions, functions as generative metaphor that branches into multiple investigations. From this initial observation about water's absence and the traces it leaves, El Gotaibi has developed inquiries into nation-states and their territories, into populations and their governance, into the relationship between abundance and scarcity, presence and absence, vitality and decline. The work operates simultaneously at multiple scales: the intimate gesture of digging furrows in sand, the placement of tiny figurines that become multitudes through photographic manipulation, and the vast conceptual territory these small interventions map.
read more
Black Hole: Fine Art Pigment Print, (74 x 110 cm) / 2011
Illuminate the Light / Installation of 7 Corten steel sculptures
in the Somerset House Courtyard / 2023
Illuminate the Light / Installation of 7 Corten steel sculptures
in the Somerset House Courtyard / 2023
