“Infinitely recurrent portraits of women, stuck to each other, and horizontally and vertically arranged; the physiognomic resemblance is reinforced by the expressive faces and the repetitions of specific motifs as much as it is reinforced by the monochrome coloring of leaves. On top, there is a carpet of images, composed of a mixture of ornamental and floral motifs of human faces. A drawing that reaches the edges of the photographic collage and which partially hides the faces. It destroys but also retrieves the motif of the portrait and reproduces it as if it wanted to preserve the image from disappearance.

Indeed, this installation deals with the question of appearance and disappearance. Repetition takes the face and the ornament beyond themselves, to the unpresentable. So in fact, we can ask the question:  what is oriental and what is Western? Where does the border lie?

Fineness, evanescence, uniqueness – the portrait is a symbol of these categories. And yet, it seems to be getting rid of them, here and now, intoning the ever-resounding melody of a canon that can only catch one’s attention”
Silke Bitzer

About the artist

Ulrike Weiss lives and works between Fribourg and Rabat. She teaches at the School of Fine Arts, in Fribourg.