In Abdelkader Benchamma’s work, drawing – his preferred medium – is not seen as a fixed object, defined by the rectangle of the sheet of paper, but as an energy that takes over space and time. The title of the installation, Au bord des mondes [At the Edge of the Worlds], is borrowed from contemporary philosopher Mohamed Amer Meziane. The work invites viewers to enter and examine a shifting landscape. The meaning of each drawn form is both offered and eluded, oscillating between figuration and abstraction, geological memory and contemporary apparitions, traces of the visible world and journeys towards other systems of interpretation of the world, whether spiritual or symbolic. Drawn in ink directly on the walls and then partially erased, this environment is also inlaid with other drawings and projections; it is a heterogeneous, impure and constantly fertile flow, in the image of thought itself. Going against a rationalist desire to understand the world fully and recognising that there is a certain amount that we never will, a certain amount of error and disquiet, this is the cost for the work to retain its power to reveal.

Created in 2000 by Gilles Fuchs, Founder and president of ADIAF, the Marcel Duchamp Prize aims to highlight the creative abundance of the French scene at the beginning of the 21st century and to support artists in their international career.

Each year, this collectors’ prize distinguishes one laureate among four French artists or artists living in France, working in the field of plastic and visual arts: installation, video, painting, photography, sculpture, performance and so on. Like the important artist who lends his name to it – and with the complicity of the Marcel Duchamp Association, which supports this initiative – it distinguishes the most significant artists of the French scene of their generation and encourages all new artistic forms that stimulate creation.

At this time, 85 artists, laureates and nominees, have been honoured by the Marcel Duchamp Prize, which over the years and exhibitions has become a true ambassador of the French scene. They represent unique insight into the vitality of French creation and offer an open vision of contemporary art in France.