Curated by Marta Gili and Marie Bertran

Tunisian-born Ismaïl Bahri’s’s forthcoming exhibition, titled “Instruments,” seems a logical successor to “Uprisings,” curated by Georges Didi-Huberman and on view at the Jeu de Paume this past fall. The latter included Bahri’s Film à blanc, 2012, in which a blank sheet covers most of three adjacent screens. Only the movement of air across the sheet allows glimpses of what is happening behind, which is more audible than visible. This work exemplifies Bahri’s style, often characterized by a formal homology between the material support and the image—a structural yet mobile tension that is the result of the internal limits of representation, the interaction between sound and sight, and the vagaries of perception. Devoted to Bahri’s video works, this show will testify to the coherence and equipoise with which he applies this rigorously calibrated sensibility to political conflicts and social injustices.

— Nicole Brenez