Each month, discover two new interviews on the 2.0 edition of the Elles x Paris Photo website – one written, the other in video. Today’s focus is on Malala Andrialavidrazana, an artist born in Madagascar who draws on the diversity of the world’s archives to reassess our knowledge of history.
In November 2020, Paris Photo and the Ministry of Culture, in association with Fisheye Magazine, launched a website dedicated to Elles x Paris Photo – a physical and digital circuit highlighting the women artists present at the heart of the fair. A way to give them a voice, through written and filmed interviews. Since the launch of the 2.0 edition last March, Valérie Belin, Laia Abril, Jun Ahn, Alison Rossiter, Judith Joy Ross, Cig Harvey and Barbara Probst have been showcased one after the other. Today, discover the French-Malagasy artist and photographer Malala Andrialavidrazana, who explores the heritage of various cultures around the world, through shared memory and archives.
Born in Madagascar in 1971, Malala Andrialavidrazana moved to Paris at the age of twelve, where she still lives and works today. Through her creations, she questions our history, as well as contemporary issues and underlines the contrasts between the perception of the Western world and the countries of the South. “Perceptions of the world are nourished by arbitrary norms that are perpetuated from one era to the next, by relationships of domination between genders, colours, classes and nations, or by industrial and technological advances that cause more tragedy than justice, she explains. Clearly, I believe that we cannot move forward without cleaning up backward-looking ideologies.
At the crossroads of various art forms, Malala Andrialavidrazana deconstructs the photographic medium and invents a new visual and conceptual language to upset the status quo. “The photographic language that I have been trying to develop since the beginning aims to overturn stereotypical representations,” she says. As she moves further and further away from the camera, the artist recycles old images collected from various archives around the world. She abandons her single point of view and confronts it with multiplicity. In this way, she questions, appropriates and provokes existing visual codes – sources of many of our prejudices. “Today, I am really more at ease with photo collage, which is closer to drawing, and which therefore leaves me space to manipulate images that I would not have had in a classic photograph produced with a single shot“, concludes the photographer.
An interview to discover on Elles X Paris Photo‘s website.
“1883, Reference Map for Business Men” Figures © Malala Andrialavidrazana
“1886, Voyages autour du Monde” Figures © Malala Andrialavidrazana
“1918, Der Entente” Figures © Malala Andrialavidrazana
Image d’ouverture : “1918, Der Entente” Figures © Malala Andrialavidrazana
