MUNTHE ART MONDAY HORYA MAKHLOUF

Please introduce yourself and tell us about what you do.

My name is Horya Makhlouf and I'm an independent art critic and curator as well as an employee of the Palais de Tokyo, a major Paris art center, where I'm artistic coordinator and curator of special projects. These last few years, I've worked in different areas of the world of visual arts and culture in general: from cultural mediation in museums and local art centers to freelance exhibition curating in various art venues in France, via participation in cultural podcasts (where we talk about art, exhibitions and ways of circulating artists' stories), as well as organizing shows and collaborative cultural projects for municipalities, in associative structures or in alternative venues, writing texts for artists, galleries or art magazines, and so on.

To sum up, I explore the different ways of producing and circulating art. Through writing and exhibiting, I tell stories and memories: my very own and those of the artists I like to accompany. With their works and my words, I try to circulate and bring together the big official histories and the little individual stories (sometimes secret, confidential or prevented). I carry out this work in institutions and beyond, because I'm convinced of the emancipatory capacity of the arts in society, and that the best way I can participate in sharing and redistributing it is by calling on what I've learned to do and what I love to do: that is, art history, telling stories and connecting people.

Horya is wearing FYFFE jacket.

Horya is wearing FRIDOLF jacket.

Could you explain more about how being a woman has affected your career?

I believe that being a woman, but even more a woman crossed by other things that the society in which I live imposes (unfortunately) as the basis of a hierarchy between its members - such as class, race and gender - has made me more sensitive and empathetic to the stories I encounter, but also stronger vis-à-vis the world of work.

In my various professional adventures, I've had to move between many obstacles and constraints imposed by society (in addition to those already imposed by the world of work itself). I try to do as I see fit, by finding spaces of freedom where I can, and by multiplying encounters and areas where artistic practices can circulate.

It's a bit of resourcefulness, a bit of perseverance, and a lot of optimism, which I've certainly inherited a little, but also nurtured a lot afterwards.

Horya is wearing FRIDOLF jacket.

What has been the most challenging aspect of being a woman in the arts?

I said earlier that being a woman affected by yet more problems than gender in our society has taught me to be stronger. What has been challenging in my early career in the arts is a succession of many obstacles. It's been painful at times, but the traits that make me who I am today have involved learning to assert myself - when people in front of you systematically cut you off in meetings, for example, minimize your knowledge or skills, make inappropriate remarks that have nothing to do with your professional skills, or even worse than remarks... To have a fulfilling career in these conditions, you have to learn to assert yourself, fight the impostor syndrome for a long time, convince yourself of your legitimacy to be there, despite the uncertainties and certain forces in our society that try to persuade you otherwise...

And then one day succeed in turning this empathy - which is a precious quality - into a real strength. It's a question of dosage, of struggle where there is sometimes pain, but where you have to find the joy and good allies to hold on. I find it in the works of art I write about or help to show in exhibitions, in my relationships with artists, and in the solidarity I hope to create with the artists and colleagues I meet.

Horya is wearing FYFFE jacket.

Can you name some other female (gallery owners or women in the arts) that inspires you and explain why they do so?

There are many women who inspire me so it's hard to choose just a few, but I've been working recently with some exceptional female artists of all generations, who are also struggling in their practices to defend a name, build a solid place in this world and spread, on top of all that, the beauty of their work. I'm thinking of Renée Levi (whose loops of paint and magnificent colors you can see behind me in the images, which are an in-situ work by her at the Palais de Tokyo that I accompanied), but also Samta Benyahia, Zineb Sedira, with well-established careers, or younger artists with an (hopefully) even brighter future, such as Socheata Aing, Cindy Bannani, Neïla Czermak Ichti, Alexia Fiasco, Naomi Lulendo, Ghita Skali, Aïcha Snoussi...

And then, closer to my skills as a researcher and curator, there are people like Catherine David (whose exhibitions in Europe in the early 2000s taught me a lot about the capacity of art institutions to show or not show some voices), Susana Gallego-Cuesta (with whom I'm currently working on an exhibition), Meryem Sebti (the founder of Diptyk Magazine, for which I write regularly), Koyo Kouoh (an international curator whose work in promoting non-Western practices I admire), Parand Danesh (a brilliant researcher and editor). The list would be very long if I could mention everyone...

Horya is wearing FYFFE jacket.

What would you like people to notice with the work you curate?

In the texts, exhibitions and other forms of storytelling that I create, I'd like the people who receive them to be sensitive to the stories these contents tell. That they might sometimes find themselves in them, feel a little “at home” exploring them, find comfort and/or strength to carry on. To think that art really can help change mentalities - at least a little. I'd like them to receive the same joy that I put into things and that artists give me in return. I'd like them to feel the sincerity of my work, and to come away from a text, an exhibition or a discussion I can arrange with the feeling that they are a little less alone, perhaps, than they were before they joined in. I hope we can also tell ourselves that the rather general words and concepts so often used in “contemporary art”, such as “care”, “decolonial”, “cultural democracy or rights”, “decentralization” (and so on), are not just words, but acts and practices that are carried out every day.

Horya is wearing FRIDOLF jacket.