Today we’d like to introduce you to Ines Messaoud (Inesart).
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am a multidisciplinary artist (Franco-Tunisian), a doctor in plastic arts and art sciences from the University of Aix en Provence /France. I have a professional experience of almost 10 years in state education. I have taught as a part-time teacher (temporary teacher)in digital media (Photo/Video), at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne/France. Moreover, I was a contractual teacher “expert in new technologies” at the Higher Institute of Arts and Crafts Sfax/Tunisia.
I also had an experience in college education as a contractual teacher of fine arts and applied arts in secondary school at the Academy of Aix-Marseille. I have been fascinated by art since I was very young. My fundamental specialty is “contemporary weaving”, but I do not hesitate to use several techniques of creation, traditional or contemporary with a personal touch.
My creations vary between mini works and installations, they sometimes exceed 300 kg. I work on the mixing of several specialties and mediums. I sail between “Weaving”, “Performance”, “Video”, “Sculpture”, “Painting”, “Digital art” and “Photography”. Apart from my university degree in art, I have acquired several professional certificates: Certificates of professional skills for the specialties “Wall Tapestry”, “Traditional Weaving”, “Traditional Dyeing”, and “Painting and Decorating on different media”. I had several exhibitions/communications in France and abroad (Tunisia / USA / Ukraine).
For a decade, I have been working on the idea of duality which symbolizes the relationship between the sensible and intelligible world. The opening towards another space, another world, the passage of the being, of the soul, of the spirit towards the beyond, in the manner of a spiritual escape from a material world towards an immaterial beyond. Each artistic work is a reflection of a personal lived experience that can be shared or not.
I had an academic career starting in my home country Tunisia. I obtained, (in Tunisia), a diploma of Master in Plastic Arts, the equivalent in Europe of the diploma of “Master1”, with a subject entitled “Transgression creative emergence”.
“Transgression, creative emergence”, is the title of my diploma of “Master in Fine Arts” (equivalent in Europe to the “Master 1”).
The plan of the memory was divided into three parts: construction/destruction/reconstruction. It was the plan of the spiritual progression of my thoughts and my choices. My situation of interior conflict, torn between a feeling of curiosity (that of the plastic investigation) faced that of prudence. This tug-of-war is explained by a set of ideas that often pushes me to act in the face of changes, and revolts that are like moments of consciousness, of action.
I had to disfigure, alter things to see better. This reconstruction exceeds the usual laws and its opening requires two different spaces. I went beyond the idea of “internal” communication to open up to the outside. I wanted to make an exchange that goes beyond my environment, my surroundings, and maybe even my country. This communication with other cultures, other ways of thinking, of seeing things results. With experience and time, I realize today that it is my work that pushed me to immigration and that the desire to exchange and weave links has overwhelmed me for a very long time.
Details: June/2005 – Higher Institute of Arts and Crafts of Sfax/Tunisia. A Master’s degree in Fine Arts, the equivalent of the master1’s in Europe (in Fine Arts and Art Science). An installation of 350 kg / Electrical wires in normal state and copper core / The technique of the hook.
At the beginning of my professional career, I had a contract as a trainer from 01-02-2007 to 07-07-2007 in a training center for girls in Sfax / Tunisia. I taught silk painting for 7 months. During the school vacations (summer of 2007) I presented myself to a competition at the technical center of Creation, innovation, and Supervision of Carpet and Weaving in Tunis capital (it is a center attached to the Ministry of Crafts) for a position of Designer, AutoCAD (2d and 3 D). I spent 6 months there, (from 09-07-2007 to 15-01-2008), before deciding to return to national education. I had considerably missed the exchange and the transmission with others. I then understood that I was not made for office jobs, in my eyes, interaction with others prevailed.
For a few months, I thought a lot about how I could fit into the academic world when I hadn’t even started my master 2 degrees. My multiple research then led to the creation of a new subject which was proposed to the program of the rectorate of Sfax. I got closer to my fundamental specialty “contemporary weaving” by visiting craft workshops and doing various internships. It was at that time that the idea germinated in my mind, it was to establish a new subject called “knowledge and technique of materials in traditional and contemporary weaving”.
It was an innovative subject within the university. I carefully prepared for months a clear booklet and a well-detailed program for each chapter (history and specificities of materials, traditional and contemporary practical techniques…). This allowed me to get a contract as an “Expert in new technologies”. The contract was renewed twice. At the third proposal, I refused the job because I had decided to finish my studies in France. I was accepted directly into a master 2 in plastic arts at the faculty of arts, letters, languages, and humanities of Aix-Marseille. So after having taught from 15-09-2008 to 15-07-2010, I resumed the status of a student in Master 2 in September 2010 in Aix en Provence.
In 2010, I decided to immigrate to France. In 2011, in France, in Aix en Provence, I passed my “Master 2” with a thesis entitled “Weaving Diversion: Play on Shadows and Lights ” So, in 2011, I validated my master 2 in plastic arts at the Faculty of Arts, Letters, Languages, and Humanities of Aix-Marseille, with a good mention and an average of 15.20.
My art work is composed of 7 wefts crocheted in electric wires: an assembly that weighs almost 120 kg. A paradoxical relationship between the materiality, heaviness, and heavy of my frames and the immateriality, of the shadow. A dialogue that was established between two forms: that of the real and that of the virtual… I was interested in the shadow as a kind of imprint… This notion of shadow that I adopted in my subject, symbolizes the idea of the opening towards another space, another world, towards a kind of communication with the memory. I tried to evoke an idea of transcendence and escape to the cosmos. The passage of the being, of the soul, of the spirit towards the beyond. A bit like a spiritual escape from a material world to an immaterial beyond.
The shadow is for me a form of door towards others. A form of opening for meetings and exchanges but in two particular universes at the same time distant and contiguous. When I put myself in front of my frames and observe their shadows, I feel like a traveler, I have the inner and strange sensation that this journey breaks all the barriers physically installed around my body. I feel while observing it a form of liberating call that allows me to exceed my limits, a limit between the stable elements, carved hooked, and the shadows which I obtain. It is plastic research that has given me the deepest sensations and that have a strange articulation. I feel a form of verticality going from me to me”, circular and connected on me, between my mind and my heart but also a form of horizontality, in a form of dialogue but towards the outside and the surrounding world.
A “Master 2 in Plastic Arts and Art Sciences” in September 2011 at the Faculty of Sciences and Letters in Aix En Provence under the direction of Mr. “Khalil M’Rabet”. The president of the jury: Mr “Patrick Moquet”. (An installation of 120 kg / Electrical wires / The technique of the hook).
In 2012, I submitted my application to the rectorate of Aix Marseille1. I then started to work as a “Plastic Arts Teacher” in secondary schools in the “Bouches du Rhone”. (Salon de Provence, Avignon, Chateau Renard, Valréas, Vaison la Romaine, Bollène, Arles, Istres, Pelissanne, Martigues, Miramas, Aix en Provence, Rognac, La Fare les Oliviers, Eyguieres, St Martin de Crau….). These replacements allowed me to develop my ability to adapt to various and varied audiences and also to deepen my pedagogy so that the transmission can be done sustainably.
Wanting to deepen the notion of engaged art as a subject and while starting from my personal experience, that of immigration, I presented “a thesis” under the title of “Transgression of the hook, a performative experience of space”. Chance allowed me to make beautiful discoveries. I was strongly seduced by the particular beauty of electrical cables and their plastic potential, which thus enlightened my artistic path.
I have chosen cable as the raw material for my work since 1999. I chose a craft technique, that of Crochet, in connection with contemporary tapestry. This method emphasizes the idea of connectivity and the weaving of social links by a single continuous thread without cutting, aiming at a transgression of this practice in favor of a broader understanding of what it represents. Through gestural repetition, which has allowed me to lead to a form of ritualization of my technique, I pass through a phase of awareness where perception becomes more acute.
My practice has become a form of existence, improvement, and relief to arrive at the realization of a magical effect that delivers the body by spirituality. It is also a form of connectivity, of exchange with plastic artists who have enlarged my universe. By the serial work, monochrome (black), and epistemological analysis, I suggest a crossbreeding of certain disciplines, a form of hybridization between a cosmological, mathematical, and physical universe.
My body becomes a thread drawing in the external space of my interiority through performative and expressive videos. I make there the experience of contiguity resulting in reality from the continuity of the thread. This internal and fusional space, where I experience my body about the continuous thread, often has an imaginary dimension, to which is added an external space, that of representation and distancing in the physical world of my work. On 20/12/2017 – Faculty of Science and Letters in Aix En Provence, “Defense of Doctorate in Plastic Arts and Science of Art”. Thesis directors: “Alain Chareyre Méjan” ( philosopher) , in cotutelle with “Khalil M’Rabet”. The president of the jury: “Bernard Salignon” (philosopher). A member of the jury: “Germain Roesz”.
In 2020, I decided to deepen my knowledge by integrating a course of a few months in the field of programming to apply it in the long term to the artistic universe (I will come back on this point in detail in the practical and artistic example’s part: “Programming”) I belong to a family that values knowledge of the web, essential knowledge to understand the conception of the virtual world. In 2020, I wanted to enhance my skills with state-certified training, so I followed training in the Bouchées du Rhone to acquire the status of “Professional Web and Mobile Web Developer”. This training allowed me, to manage also my personal websites http://inesarts.net and http://inesarts.net/FR/ (under construction).
From 01/09/2021 until 31/08/2022, I was a temporary teacher at the university in a workshop in digital media (Photo/Video), at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. During the semester, I presented projects that required research, reflection, and practice. The final work had a cross-over and interweaving between video editing (various software) and photography.
Since 2022, I signed a contract with the national education in a professional high school in another discipline “Arts education and applied arts” . I then discovered a multitude of specialties that pushed me to search, to think and that allowed me to acquire new skills. Art can extend to all universes and especially to everyday life. We are far from abstraction; art becomes a concrete notion that allows us to develop and perform on the quality of life.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
“Trust your dreams….”
1) 1st dream: since I was a teenager, I’ve always dreamed of finishing my studies at the University of Art. I had to retake my baccalaureate 3 times to get my diploma and get into the University of Art.
2) 2nd dream: I’ve always dreamed of teaching at the same university where I did my studies. And exactly I had a 2-year renewable contract (in Tunisia).
3) 3rd dream: I presented a doctoral thesis based on personal experience; I was delighted that the jury members noted in the final report that the thesis must be published…
4) 4th dream: I’ve always dreamed of teaching in the most prestigious faculty in France, the Sorbonne Paris 1, I had a few hours as a a temporary teacher (contract) … A great experience.
I have other dreams to achieve, but I won’t reveal them.
Obstacles: “My artistic expression as a therapeutic means in the face of sexism and discrimination”
1) Discrimination: The history of discrimination goes back to my country of origin. Until now, I have not had any explanation concerning the refusal of registration in Master 2 that I filed for in Tunisia. I have always been accepted as a professor specializing in new technologies for two years of teaching, renewable, BUT the university has never accepted my file to finish my studies. Despite that, I love my country of origin, and Tunisia will always be in my heart. I will always be grateful for everything it has done for me. For me, it is the best country in the world. Discrimination followed me to France. It is not always easy to submit my file to be exhibited in prestigious places in France; I have more refusals than acceptances. Although I have been a French citizen since 2015, having a name of North African origin is not always well received. And France will always be the country I chose out of love. It is now my second country, and this beautiful country welcomed me with open arms. Fortunately, I am a warrior and I don’t give up. So despite what I just said, I love both my country of origin and my second country.
2) Sexism: Sexism is the problem of the majority of women who suffer in silence, women who are used to managing multiple activities at the same time. Teaching, exhibitions, writing scientific articles, etc. A dynamic woman is not always appreciated by men with a superiority complex. Yes, I have been a victim of sexism in my work over the years. I have been humiliated and I can’t even want my rights because sometimes I don’t have material evidence to justify it, only moral implications.
3)the relationship between teacher and headteacher
In 10 years of experience in France, I’ve had two bad experiences (I will tell my story in detail in a personal book…) for now i mean, IF the the principal of an establishment is a former teacher, SHE values a teacher’s work. But when a principal, in a college or secondary school, who has never worked as a teacher, sometimes trivializes a teacher’s effort and his or her judgment is based on theory…
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a multi-disciplinary artist…I don’t have a single specific technique…art for me is THERAPY and depending on my mood, I choose my medium, technique, and materials to better express what I can’t say with words. So, it can be painting, sculpture, installation, ceramics, weaving, video, performance, drawing, photography…etc. Since preparing my thesis, I’ve always worked on the idea of connectivity with others and social exchange. (I’ve met many artists all over the world).
I’ve tried to present my work on an international scale and publish my artistic creations on my different social networks in English since it’s the world’s first language. Social networks have facilitated my celebrity. As a feminist artist too, I try to choose subjects that start from a personal story but that can also be shared, such as sexism, discrimination… I’m a persevering artist, I don’t give up in my life, I set my goal and go for it. Sometimes I encounter difficulties in my progress, but I bounce back and continue on my way.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
I’m not going to talk about a specific city, I’m going to talk about the USA.
Part of my thesis was on connectivity and social exchange based on an artistic analysis of my work (based on gestural repetition). I contacted several artists of American origin as a reference and I was surprised by the good feedback. I can cite by way of example a few well-known names.
-The artist is the mathematician ” Daina Taimina” who helped me a lot to analyze my work (I wrote in my thesis about ten pages on her work and her book).
-The artist “Kathryn Vercillo”. I wrote a comparative study of about ten pages (in my thesis too). The few intellectual exchanges that we had together (concerning my artistic and educational background, the symbolism of my work, and the relationship of complementarity between artists/craftsmen), resulted in the writing of “an article, entitled “Artist Profile” “which she published in the United States.” I have kept good contact with her until today and with other artists…
Contact Info:
- Website: http://inesarts.net/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inesart_artist/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InesartArtist
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/inesart/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ines_arts
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Inesart/videos
- Other: https://www.pinterest.fr/Inesart1/
