MAHJOUB BEN BELLA - DRAWINGS : THAI + MAYA.
Jean-Louis Pinte.
« The most distinctive aspect of his painting is his repetition of a particular sign or pattern, and how this sign or pattern resonates like a magical song. However, Ben Bella does not illustrate nor does he follows the illustrative steps of an ordinary Arabic calligraphy. Instead, he simply extracts from it a musicality that is given life through both his lines and colours. This eventually forms a music score that permeates throughout the painting, the sounds of which pulsate and vibrate across the artwork’s surface. Whilst he neglects the silence of a monochrome surface, he generously covers his canvas with an abundance of quavers and other notes that diffuse the melody across the painting, transporting it towards a syncopated and linear abstraction.
On some occasions, Ben Bella surpasses this simple tonality and tries to carry the viewer away into life’s rustle and into its quivering landscapes. In his canvas paintings, he creates sacred fields, the furrows of which lead the viewer to transcend the simple lyricism. It seems that he allows himself to be taken over by the vertigo of writing up until ecstasy, thus becoming the bard of a book of prayers celebrating the glory of art. »
(Jean-Louis Pinte, Les champs sacrés de Ben Bella, Figaroscope)
