Sara Sadik (b. 1994, FR) is inspired by what she terms “beurcore”: the youth culture developed by working-class members of the Maghrebi diaspora. Her work brings together video, performance, installation and photography in order to explore beurcore’s manifestations, while her references span music, language, fashion, social networks and science fiction. These narratives, which the artist regularly features in, often document and analyse beurcore’s social and aesthetic symbols. Starting from a semiological and sociological analysis of the “beurness”, Sadik goes on to hijack these social clichés by deconstructing and reintegrating them into fictions.
Sara Sadik, Carnalito Full Option, 2020
Video
20’
Commissioned by Manifesta 13 Marseille
Supported by LAB 360 and Drosos Foundation
In collaboration with the minors of Centre Educatif Fermé Les Cèdres
Courtesy of the artist
Carnalito Full Option is the second phase of Hlel Academy, a four-part project exploring teenage interactions and displays of emotions. Hlel Academy is a fictive training centre that welcomes those love has forgotten, heartbroken men between 16 and 20. Its academic programme is based on emotional and sentimental rehabilitation with the goal of training the elite Hlels of tomorrow.
Using the format of reality television, Carnalito Full Option is a real-life fiction in which five teenagers are isolated in an arena, cut-off from the outside world. For 24 hours, these young men will compete against each other in trials for the title of ‘ideal gadjo’. These trials were designed based on the ideal man portrayed by teenage girls on social media. Carnalito Full Option explores the mechanisms of young masculinity, oscillating between virile postures and teenage emotions. These young perfomers took part to a series of workshops led by Sara Sadik to prep them to the different trials – especially the one of poetry. By capturing the moments on and off set, Carnalito Full Option documents the mysteries of teenage seduction, and fleshes out the issues that animate those young men.
For the sake of their anonymity, the artist is obliged to conceal the actors’ identities.
* Work conceived for the occasion of Manifesta 13 Marseille
