"Laaroussa Fragment" fully embodies the implementation of one of the primary motivations of L'Art Rue since its creation, and more specifically one that is adopted by its founders Sofiane & Selma Ouissi: to esthetically draw from the unique potential of the territory. Starting from a documented appropriation of an ancestral artisanal skill – namely the making of ceramic dolls from Sejnane – our artists' artistic gesture aims to be the result of an immersion/experimentation on site, that is; an "initiation" into the craft fostering a truly fusional communion experienced alongside the artisans within their prosaic environment.

However, the ambition at stake is by no means reduced to a dualistic endeavor, which would be that of a subject in search of an opportune object. Indeed, between the clay (earth), the diligent hands of the artisans (the body), and the artwork ("Laaroussa"), an organic bond is woven, a bond in which Selma & Sofiane actively participated, in order to adopt this movement language leading to the creation of these dolls.

The contemporary gaze cast by our artists raises the tone of what might seem repetitive, if not monotonous, in this artisanal process, to translate it into a rhythmic choreographic language. Thus, the hands at work, sometimes flattening, sometimes shaping and rolling the material, now break free from possibly being the "object of the work" - and instead, "Laaroussa" – became the artwork itself. This process of abstraction elevates this bodily language to the level of a liberated poetic movement, rebellious against any mercantilist destiny to which the urban gaze constantly associates it: "the tool becomes an extension of the movement, the tools of this artisan knowledge dance in space, quick and percussive, like a living memory that is transmitted through time *." The documentary "Laaroussa - a Dreamt Society" reveals nothing else: it is about sketching a potential space where the land, gestures, and voices generate a sensitive community, connecting Sejnane's heritage with contemporary creation. Each movement becomes a trace and memory, revealing the fragility and power of a community in the making.

From the clay extracred from the depth of the earth, to the creation of the final artisanal work, "Laaroussa Fragment" project, drawing from photographic capture, video, and performative action, aspires to give this movement its due sense and poetry, in a holistic manner.

It is also about, through drawing on rich and rigorous documentary work, accounting for all the surrounding stimuli that contribute to the genesis of such a work, presented in "Fragment" as an open invitation/encouragement to become aware, thanks to these discreet rituals that artisans perform daily, of the highly poetic and human potential of such an approach. It will highlight - both through gestural language ("Quartet") and through visual reflective narration ("Fragment") - the fragile territorial tensions that the artisan community at work is subject to.

Going against the functional destiny that weighs on the artisanal object, de-objectifying the very object of manual labor, let's agree, this runs underground throughout Selma & Sofiane Ouissi's entire work "Laaroussa." And if the performative space offered by "Laaroussa Quartet" stems from a carefully designed score by our duo, it is rather from a conscious re-partition of the different moments of the movement collected since its initial matrix experience that "Laaroussa Fragment" starts.

Laaroussa unfolds a resonance between gestures, bodies, and matter, rooted in the practices of the potters of Sejnane. The gestures of labor, passed down from generation to generation, are displaced onto the stage and transfigured into a choreographic language where clay becomes breath and memory. Through this movement, the project makes visible a collective corporeality that combines economic necessity, cultural heritage, and transformative power. In this sensitive space, matter and voices rise like a poetics of resistance and community, opening up a territory of shared experiences and living othernesses.

It is in this esthetic universe where the paradigms of artisanal practice (such as repetition, working with raw materials, anonymity) could support any effort at conceptualization; where words give way to the crackling of the material, that the generative principle of "Laaroussa" project takes root. It is worth asking: how could contemporary artistic research free manual craftsmanship from any mercantile "folklorization"? What is the creative potential of artisanal craftsmanship outside the binary functional/decorative divide, which is imposed on it by the standardized constraints of supply? Finally, how can we restore the hand to its primary role, not as a mere agent of execution, but as an "animated being" capable of actively engaging the mind?

It is perhaps at this stage of the creative process, where the creative impulse of the "not-yet-useful" or the "enough-to-be-contemplated" triumphs, that stubbornness, as explored by "Laaroussa" project, is brought back to its primary role, which is to transform man and his reality. The work at hand presents itself as a vital field of sharing, free from any hierarchy, where the horizontality of relationships, fosters the expression of singularities in the service of a collective creation. In critical resonance with the mechanisms of austerity and the impasses of the increasing proletarianization of our societies, Laaroussa asserts itself as a space for emancipation and resistance, where struggles, knowledge, and practices call for other possibilities.

Hedi KHELIL

Doctor in Arts & Art Sciences from the University of Sorbonne Paris I

Cultural Operator & Development Consultant

*«Laaroussa Duetto», excerpt from the curatorial text by Selma & Sofian Ouissi.