Oussama Tabti  / Tête d'arabe #2 /

This work is a reinterpretation of a painting by the orientalist painter Etienne Dinet.

Its title, «Head of an Arab», was what struck me. This painting, executed in 1901 by a French painter, depicts an «Arab», the name by which he designates the colonized local inhabitant, presenting him as a curiosity, an exotic subject.

By confronting this representation to the contemporary depiction of Arabs in the medias, we are struck by the historical parallel: the Arab is still exhibited as an oddity.