As he grew up in a multicultural environment, with a Muslim and a Christian parent, Mehdi-Georges Lahlou experienced our multicultural and multiform society in daily life. Renewing the vocabulary of sculpture and image, all his work shows a tension that goes along with great freedom.
Swinging over prejudices, the artist stands beyond the cultural borders which hold back our societies and plays on ambiguity through displacements that he operates with great talent.
Through his performances or installations, he poses crucial questions involving identity (religious, cultural or sexual).
Breaking through stereotypes, the artist transforms his body as he subverts traditions. He knows, through juxtaposition, how to walk a fine line in order to disturb formal and established conventions. He uses feminine attributes (high heel shoes, lipstick, veil) but keeps his masculine appearance (bear, sex, muscles). His disguise is partial and thus disturbs the norms. It is not a question with Mehdi-Georges Lahlou of any "choc des cultures"; for him, all culture is confining. To quit one means entering another.
The artist's visual work always deals with questions of idiocy. To be an idiot, or a kind of pawn, is a way to fight with coherence and freedom against the seriousness of any system. The videos are aptly named Controlled stupidities.
Going beyond the borders towards absurdity, Mehdi-Georges Lahlou always keeps a kind of "chic" in his ridiculous postures. Mixing the power and humor of the idiot, he forges a path towards the marvellous.