Ali Cherri Triumph of the Limp

On the occasion of the Hors les murs program, during Art Basel Paris, Musée Delacroix is presenting two works by artist Ali Cherri, in a dialogue between his own work and the paintings of Eugène Delacroix.

Ali Cherri presents a body of works that examines how histories of trauma can be explored through a response to museum and gallery collections. For this project he presents two cabinets of curiosity at the heart of Musée Delacroix, containing assembled fragments that could resemble relics from another collection.

The interposition with Delacroix's paintings not only highlights Cherri's interest in the body and history, but also in the afterlife of artefacts and museological narratives.

In his layered films and installations, Ali Cherri investigates how violence and displacement shape collective memory. Particularly interested in the politics of archaeological practices, Cherri critiques the oft-invisible influence of nationalist and colonial agendas on the circulation, interpretation, and display of art and artifacts. Through intensive research and interventions, Cherri aims to unearth the hidden histories of objects that institutions typically conceal from view. During a year-long residency at London’s National Gallery in 2022, Cherri explored the history of vandalism against artworks in the collection. For his project at the musée national Eugène-Delacroix, he introduces two cabinets of curiosity containing fragments that resemble relics from different collections.