Jennifer in all my dreams
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Jennifer Abessira for Essen© exclusive
You have to begin to lose your memory, if only in bits and pieces, to realize that memory is what makes our lives. Our memory is our coherence, our reason, our feeling, even our action.
Luis Bunuel
The only thing I keep thinking about when I look at Jennifer’s photos and collages is that they move such feelings that make me fall in love immediately, after the first look, and start explaining the reason why you fell in love is not edifying and probably you will never describe it for real. Ghezzi, who is like Mc Luhan and can be attributed to any concept, once said that a text is beautiful if it refers to something universal and inexpressible that is placed outside the text itself. Well, Jennifer works with analogies, overlapping or combining pictures, often taking them from the context she lives or lived in: the beautiful things that exist are perfectly represented, re-contextualized and constructed as a new memory. Jennifer Abessira was born in Paris in 1984 and she moved to Tel Aviv at the age of seven years.
Her aesthetic education comes from many nights spent at Tel Aviv Cinématheue, she experimented with photography with a 1970 reflex, and when she was a teenager she had a darkroom in her house roof. Dazed and Confused places her among the topten Rise Photographer 2010. While she’s finishing her master in Interdisciplinary Arts, she’s also djing. Music is also a part of her daily photographic experience.
What were you listening to while making up these photos?
It’s a very good question because I seat and edit a series of works listening to 3 or 4 songs in repeat mode…Often The series are named by a movie I was influenced by while working, or after the song’s name or the album name. For the past month I found my inspiration through these songs :
Top Ranking by Blonde Redhead
Fireworks by Animal Collective
For The Damaged Coda by Blonde Redhead
Melody Day by Caribou (Four Tet Remix)
Last Day by Zola Jesus
Everything Happens To Me by Chet Baker
Sheila by Atlas Sound
The Greatest by Cat Power
Castels In The Snow by Twin Shadow
Somewhere Soundtrack
Serge Gainsbourg – Cahrlotte Forever (Album)
Serge Gainsbourg – Confidentiel (Album)
And much more…!
Where do you play in Tel Aviv?
I DJ In two alternative places in Tel-Aviv called Haprozdor and Salon Berlin. Both are cool places which allows me to play a very eclectic playlist, i don’t mix and sample, I just play the music that I love!
I can play Duke Ellington and than Joy Division followed by Robert Johnson, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Serge, Beach House ect… Actually my DJ’ing really resembles my works. I follow my feelings and intuitions, and I love the wide range that comes out – It enables each listener to connect in their own way.
Thousand plateaus means something about Delauze and Guattari?
Indeed. First I have to admit that I really love the name of their book, I find that it summarizes my way of thinking. Because this era makes me feel very fragmentized, this name suites well a series of very different autos-portraits…
So many children in your portfolio. What interests you about taking pictures of children?
Well those kids are my nephews…I don’t have a special “thing” about taking children photos, but I have to say that there are only a few people in my woks cause I always prefer to focus on spaces, objects, light and so on, this way I feel like I’m creating a real language which does not refer to a specific persona, it leaves me and the observer more imaginary space.
About my nephews it’s just that I’m really in love with them, they surprise me a lot with their beautiful imagination and feelings.
Which songs do you remember most from your Parisian period?
I move to Israel when I was 7 years old so I don’t really remember something about it, only few flashes. Nevertheless my parents always filled the house with a lot of great French Chanson like Charles Aznavour, Jaques Dutronc, Jaques Brel, Edith Piaff and more…Even after coming to Israel I stayed completely attached to my French culture and quite disconnected from the Israeli one. In such a way that I discovered the brilliant Serge Gainsbourg which has a constant influence on my life, or Charlotte, his daughter, that I admire as a singer and actress. I can spend hours in my room listening to Django Reinhardt!
Your images are something intimate and something exploding me somewhere inside, they lay between memories, family, the look, the being there. Is there any musician who could represent your work at best?
Well that’s a hard one cause I have a really eclectic taste. I really admire and ispired daily by All Gainsbourg albums, Duke Ellington, John Frusciante, I listen also a lot to Classical music, I love Bach, Marin Marais – There is so much beauty inside he’s music that I want to explode! I’m very Influenced by Cinema which I can’t live without…Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, Sofia Coppola, Jerzy Skolimowski, Harmony Korine, Philippe Garell, Vincent Gallo, Michel Gondry, etc…
