In this breakthrough series of photographs, Mohamed Bourouissa chose to appropriate the codes of history painting by staging scenes with his friends and acquaintances in the Paris banlieues where they used to hang out.
Confrontations, gatherings, incidents, looks, and frozen gestures all suggest a palpable tension. Invoking Delacroix as much as Jeff Wall, Bourouissa’s high drama in the outskirts of Paris attempts to give a place in French history to individuals usually neglected and overlooked in contemporary society.
In Périphérique, Bourouissa uses staging to critique stereotypical representations of these individuals, engaging with and parodying media representations of the banlieues and their inhabitants.
