Exhibition Sites

Hand embroidered fabric, metal and wood, 2023   

Latifa, Souad, Ferjania, Myriam and Mercedes, from Tunisia to Lebanon, five women with strangely similar lives confide in Pascal Hachem about their ailments and their experiences. A correlation is born between them and the artist through the embroidery. Hachem takes images anchored in their memories: fields of wheat, a thatched cottage and a flowered dress merge with blows and wounds. They experience this creative process as an outlet, a ray of hope in the gloom. In the unveiled veil of the fabric and the screen, they embroider their lives and abandon themselves in the memories oscillating between trauma and resilience. Through this intrusive approach, the artist reveals to us the condition of the Arab woman from disadvantaged backgrounds. He puts the spotlight on her strength and courage despite the difficulties she experiences on a daily basis.  

One’s goal 

Inspired by scenes of games from Ancient Greece that he draws on parchments, Pascal Hachem caricatures the perpetual “Bread and Circuses” under the eye of omnipresent power. It makes us aware that our homelands are only arenas where human beings play the role of battle horses to amuse the power in place.  

Viscous cercle  

Embroidered fabric and embroidery hoops bamboo, 2023   

Pascal Hachem embroiders on circles a game scene from Ancient Greece where we can see a man carrying another on his shoulders. This scene is accompanied by an inscription: "Destruction is not a dream, destruction is a national duty". In this work, the artist sarcastically highlights the balance of power between humans. It reveals to us the devastating skill of the Arab people on the historical, social and human levels, thus confronting us with our nature, imbued with endemic and systemic destruction in perpetual transmission.

Chef étoilé   

6 carved rolling pins and metal structures, 2023   

“When it comes to destruction, we have the skills” Pascal Hachem pushes the thoughts on destruction through this inscription engraved on rolling pins. A revelation that sounds like “a very simple and very clear truth, a little stupid, but difficult to discover and heavy to bear”, said Albert Camus in Caligula to describe the behaviour of the absurd man and his responsibility towards living-beings. In this installation, the artist makes an observation on Arab countries and their modus operandi based on crushing. Pascal Hachem gives us a literal reading of the mechanisms of power which, contrary to its initial function, acts like a steamroller on societies.

The players  

Casted Brass, ribbon, stick, glass and wooden frame, 2023   

On to introspection, through two medals in boxes, the first attributed to the passivity of the artist and the second to the consciousness of power. In this work, Pascal Hachem criticizes himself, and he questions the role of the artist in contemporary society in the face of the power in place since art for the artist is a weapon of his own and which allows him to take a stand. Pascal Hachem criticizes the passivity of the artist in the face of power from which he can never completely detach himself because of the socio-economic logics that govern its development.

The complete Manuals 

4 Books and steel structures, 2023     

For a better understanding of his approach, Pascal Hachem creates a destruction manual, and in an absurd twist, he offers us a meaningless book! Through this ready made, the artist pushes us to introspection by creating a mirror effect for a better awareness of oneself and one's own condition. A unique way for him to undo his meticulously elaborate creative process.