Des Astres: Abdelkader Benchamma

Danger comes from the sky. Hope too. In the Middle Ages, celestial phenomena fed the most varied fantasies. Is it different today? The signs coming from the sky are constantly changing their meaning: we perceive them differently, we interpret them differently. Astronomy or astrology, omen or physical law, magic or science, everything is intermingled. The streaks of light can be kites or witches, UFOs or drones. Carl Jung talks about a patient's dream where a huge buzzing spider pierces across the sky. Who knows if, in the past, she hasn’t seen our current drones, remotely piloted war machines with tentacular arms that echo the sad present?

Fascinated by the issue of celeste phenomena, Abdelkader Benchamma followed the hearing of the US Congress on UFOs in November 2024. The recovered objects raised insoluble questions about their origin. Scientists and military officers followed one another, coldly giving their testimonies to elected officials from everywhere. Science fiction meets reality and conspiratorial theories turned plausible in an unsettling – or fascinating – turn of events. Was the United States preparing for a new enemy or a new market? Everything accelerates regarding our relationship with the sky. Exoplanets, non-existent thirty years ago, are now counted by millions. The sky becomes habitable, colonized by both reason and imagination. Fantasies and hypotheses unfold without limit. Are we so different from our ancestors when they read the omens?

In the Kometenbuch series, Benchamma proposes about twenty drawings inspired by a sixteenth-century book that collects various celestial phenomena, represented in strange and fascinating ways. Aby Warburg, also captivated by these illustrations, highlighted the fundamental role of comets as celestial signs. Benchamma, for his part, captures it through medium and small format drawings. This choice of scale allows exacerbating the details, to explore the negligible where essential truths are sometimes hidden. 

In his previous series, he describes the abysses that suddenly open up beneath our feet, engulfing the world on the surface. Here the mystery unfolds over our heads. Under the earth or up in the air, evanescent materials and shapes dissolve in our fears and hopes. What we project on the sky is the dark side of each era, what Gastón Bachelard called the nocturnal side of humanity, that turbulent poetry, whether illuminated by the brightness of a candle or by the raw light of the spotlights. Benchamma dwells on these ancient comets, fire trails and unimaginable circles, developing their hidden shapes and meanings. He schematizes or enriches, transforming the tail of a comet into colored flames, revealing his affinity with the work of Raymond Pettibon and the tormented skies of the Joachim Patinir paintings.

Text by Sébastien Planas.

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