the eternal east
The "East" series is born from Beatrice Bissara’s triple tribute to the lands and to the peoples beyond the Mediterranean Sea.
Memory of her Egyptian roots first, she strongly revives her links to the East.
Then, as a tribute to the fascination that the east world has had upon artists from the 16th century, she is subtly inspired by Orientalism, that she studied with passion, from the Venetian Gentile Bellini’s journey to Istanbul, and to Delacroix.
Finally, it’s also the look of a European who traveled from Egypt to Turkey, from Israel to Syria from when she brought thousands of pictures, images, precious memories that now feed her inspiration.
Of course, it's a mythical East that the artist deals with. In her sculptures, as well as in her paintings, it’s all the mystery and the luxuriance of a fantasized East that is presented, the one of Ingres or Gérôme’s odalisques, in the whole splendor of their sensual beauty.
