Chouki Derrouiche
BIOGRAPHY
I was born in Lille, France, but also had the good fortune to spend three of my younger years in Algeria. In Tiemcen I soaked up Arabic-Andalusian culture, taking training in sculpture according to centuries-old techniques at a Centre Artisanal. I obtained my CAP certificate in sculpture in 1987.
A few years later, near Paris, I discovered the work of Titus Burckhardt. What a revelation that was! Through his works I came to understand the meaning and symbolism of the sacred art I was doing, which in this case was Islamic art. This led me to further nourish my strong need for understanding of the sacred by reading such authors as René Guénon, Frithjof Shuon, Martin Lings, Léo Schaya, Ananda Coomaraswamy, and many others. In that same period, I developed an interest and commitment for interfaith dialogue. The result of all this was that a common thread took form in my artistic approach, a theme I would call “The Sacred as inspiration”!
Le Sacré comme inspiration was the title I gave to my first book, which was published in 2018 and explains my approach as a sculptor engaged in dialogue among spiritual cultures, by offering several keys to understanding diverse symbolisms and specifying the various scriptural sources that had inspired me.
My second book came out in 2023. Le Chant d’écrits disperses (The song of scattered writings) is a collection of prose poems dealing in a general way with the subjects of existential questioning, the sacred, meditation, prayer, and modified states of consciousness. There is a project underway to bring out an album where some of the texts from this book will be set to music with the Duo Awatchu group. To be continued…
Since the late 1990’s I’ve been presenting the “Sacré comme inspiration” exhibition alone, but since 2019 I’ve also prepared a collective form of it by inviting other artists of various spiritual persuasions, steeped in the same existential questioning and quest for enchantment, to join me in an exhibition where “Everything that rises converges”…
For the past three years I’ve also been in residence at the Ateliers Jouret in Roubaix, where I receive trainees for initiation in wood carving.
Artistic approach
The Sacred as inspiration.
When we draw near the Sacred, we sense a fragrance of something long past, a pre-existential memory. It is as though a Spirit and an ancient recollection in-dwelling each of us invite us to ask ourselves, “Why would there be Something rather than Nothing?”
These existential questions leading to a quest for meaning and the absolute have shone through many cultures from the beginning of time… This quest for what is Universal is my ‘raw material’, so to speak, and the main source of my inspiration. Having first soaked up ‘the bark and the heart’ of the great tree of exotericism and esoterics, I produce my works by combining different types of wood with thoughts on the symbolism and the sacred texts of various spiritual traditions…
Expositions
À Phalempin en 2015, à Villeneuve d’Ascq en 2017, à Arras en 2018, à Douai en 2019 et à Tourcoing en 2023 avec Françoise Huchon qui est peintre portraitiste nous proposons l’expo « Convergence, Tradition ou la quête du signe » depuis 2015.
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2010-aujourd’hui Depuis 2019 je propose l’expo du « Sacré comme inspiration » en mode collectif où j’invite des artistes, de perspective spirituelle très diverse, pétris de questionnement existentiel et en quête d’Absolu à exposer ensemble où « Tout ce qui monte converge ». La première a eu lieu en 2019 et la 3ème en 2021 au Chateau de Bourgogne à Estaimpuis en Belgique, la 2ème à Lomme (près de Lille) en 2020, la 4ème à Arleux (près de Douai) en 2023 et enfin la plus représentative est la 5ème édition à Villeneuve d’Ascq au Château de Flers en 2023 (dont voici le lien vers la video de la visite de l’expo)...
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2015 et 2012 Festivals d’Art sacré à la cathédrale de St Omer en ou encore à Douai
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2014 Expo judéo-christiano-musulmane, Assise et San Marino, Italie. Nom de l’expo : « Figli di Abramo ».
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Re-Visionary symbol: I leave my work free of copyright so that it can be shared among people who wish to reproduce it in the spirit of the Collective, as long as they indicate me as author.
Copyright symbol: I am the copyright holder of my own works: my work cannot be reproduced, except by the Re-Visionary Art Collective, under the conditions as indicated above in point 1. Unless I give my written consent.