Paravant view: nice and clean

“Art and politics are two separate entities. The only way to be political in art is to consider the way it’s conceived, disseminated, and received by the public. Otherwise, it’s an art object. I’m interested in a world that keeps adding ideas instead of opposing them.” —Neïl Beloufa

Paravant view: nice and clean is not just an art object, according to Neïl Beloufa’s definition. Instead, it can be considered a component of infrastructure, an architectural intervention, even a spatial occupant. Employing an infrastructural aesthetics, Beloufa’s towering screen (or paravant in French) uncomfortably bissects the exhibition space or veils the view to the exterior. Its lightweight panels serve as a canvas for visualizing a spatial economy of division. Seen from one angle, its surface looks like a sculpted wall with porous brickwork, evoking the impenetrable appearance of governmental and administrative structures. The soft, open-cell polyurethane foam is coated with a pastel-colored camouflage pattern, enhancing its faux military allure. Meanwhile, from the opposite angle, shapes reminiscent of stained glass depict a backlit abstract skyscape, partially seen through a wire mesh.

Paravant view: nice and clean prompts viewers to confront the divisive nature and the complexities of power dynamics in the built environment. While its infrastructure is shaped to enhance the quality of life for certain populations, it also embodies the depressive, racist, and classist qualities of capitalist realism, susceptible to breakdowns and facilitating segregation and oppression. Through his approach to art and its relationship with politics, Beloufa’s harsh poetics provoke contemplation on the tensions that organize the social realm, reinforced by the materiality of walls, surfaces, and even the views they afford.

(Text written by TBA21 and used as wall label in the exhibition "The Ecologies of Peace", C3A, Córdoba, 2024)