Nabil El Makhloufi's work questions the place of the individual in society. Indeed, the characters often seem to be alone, even when they're in the middle of a crowd. They always impose their presence. A calm, serene presence that doesn't try to shout that it's there to impose itself. Hence the title of this exhibition, in which the plural attributed to the word presence imposes meanings that are difficult to fit into the fabric of a discourse, because they are part of the mystery.
Nabil El Makhloufi's artistic approach is characterized by a figurative style that imbues his canvases with a very particular universe, dominated by realism and symbolism. A strange atmosphere of suspended time emanates from his works. The characters the artist creates are never inert. They always impose a presence that is both fragile and threatening. The viewer often finds himself imagining the before and after of the scene depicted. Narrative is inherent in Nabil El Makhloufi's work, but it always retains a mysterious quality; each character, each scene, being a window onto something else.
