Interview with Poline Harbali, artist and illustrator // LISAA Alumni

Poline: I started working as an illustrator for Le Monde during my last year of studies in Graphic Design at LISAA, my work having been recommended by the illustrator Isabel Espanol. Since then, I have always worked with them. I also illustrated several books with the publishers Editions du Trésor, for an adult audience, but also for Larousse and Bayard.

Since graduating, I have mainly concentrated on my work as an artist, which has been published by the European photography magazine, The Eyes, thanks to the photographer Guillaume Lebrun, and then by l'Œil de la Photographie. Then several exhibitions followed at the Galerie Intervalle, Sophie Lanoë Gallery, JABAL, and in the young artists section at the Beirut Art Fair (Lebanon), in particular.

I would say that the value and the definition that I ascribe to my work evolves as my work evolves. I am primarily an artist, which includes photography, drawing, embroidery and also, increasingly, sculpture and video.

The medium that I use evolves with my research. I don’t separate my work as an illustrator, which, for me, feeds into my work as an artist on another level. In it I speak about the world and its transformation and, for me, all of that is linked. What interests me is creating a link between things rather than segmenting them.

At the beginning, my investigative work was of a more existential order: I started with my personal story, to which I gave artistic forms for lack of understanding it intellectually. Since then, of course, my aims have developed — I haven’t remained stuck in the past even if it’s still my rallying point, my instinct. I am the subject so I work with what I experience. It all evolves quite quickly.

Currently, I am thinking formerly about obsolete national identities, in particular for first generation children of immigrants. I wonder if segmentation in terms of nation is relevant, with this mass exodus movement and migration that is happening throughout the world. How do we define ourselves? How are we defined by others, and institutionally? How do we manage contradictions and paradoxes of mixed cultures due to immigration? I work a lot on this concept of "us" which has been becoming more exacerbated recently. What does "us" mean? Who does it include and exclude?

I am very inspired by reading. That’s my main source of inspiration — language and vocabulary. Words have a great sensory power for me.

Recently, I’ve really got into Wajdi Mouawad, who works on the relation between family secrets and political transformation. How does the History of the world — of which the culminating point is war — separate and transform personal, individual stories? How does politics create monsters, more than individuals themselves?

I have also read a lot of Olivia Rosenthal. I’m obviously inspired by lots of visual artists: Mona Hatoum, Anna Boghiguian, Yto Barrada, Kiki Smith. Lots of contemporary art. For me, art translates a sensoral reality before it becomes intellectualised. It’s an intuition of a movement.

I am part of the judges’ selection for the latest edition of the European photography festival Circulation(S), which takes place every year at the Centquatre in Paris. This year, it will take place between January and March.

I was also selected along with three other artists by the Fontfreyde Photographic Centre in Clermont-Ferrand, where I will present my photography series, “Le Damas des autres” (The Damascus of Other People), accompanied by embroidery done with hair, video and sculptures, from March to June 2017. And from March, I’ll be heading to Canada to pursue other projects – watch this space!