Oussama Tabti
Born in Algeria in 1988, Oussama Tabti is a visual artist, lives and works in Brussels. He graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Algiers in 2012, the Art School of Aix-en-Provence in 2017, and the HISK (Hoger Instituut voor Schone Kunsten) in Ghent in 2020.
His work questions hermetic geopolitics, consisting of impassable frontiers and cultures that fold up on themselves. In his own way he denounces the difficulty of moving in a world that is indeed globalized but also suspicious, frightened by the ‘stranger’ and by difference.
His work has been exhibited exhibited at festivals, museums and galleries including Dakar Biennale, Salon de Montrouge, Centrale for contemporary art in Brussels, Museum of Contemporary art of Bordeaux, Museo Riso in Palermo, Kunstraum Kreuzberg in Berlin and it is part of several collections like Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona MACBA, Centre National des Arts Plastique CNAP, M HKA Museum of contemporary art of Antwerp, Museum of the city of Brussels / La maison du roi, National museum of contemporary art of Athens EMST as well as private collections.
Tracks
This project explores a fascinating aspect of universal culture: workers’ songs. Across cultures and languages, these songs have long accompanied generations of workers throughout history. Music has played a crucial role for immigrant laborers—bridging distances, easing loneliness, and filling emotional voids.
During a construction site visit made by the artist, each group of workers was equipped with a Bluetooth speaker playing a wide variety of music from around the world. This juxtaposition of the traditional and the modern became the starting point for the project.
This work is a sound installation composed of around ten construction-site radios, through which the a cappella voices of immigrant workers—both women and men—will resonate.
