eL Seed Quotes

• Art brings people back to their sensibility as human beings. This is the purpose of art: To bring people together and bring back the humanity as well.

  eL Seed

  Art, People, Humanity

  Interview with Emily McDermott, www.interviewmagazine.com. January 29, 2016.

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• I've seen it personally that people have a natural sensibility to Arabic script. I don't know it if it's because of the shape, I don't know what it is in this script that makes it so universal. But even if you don't understand it, you still have this feeling; you can feel the piece of art in front of you.

  eL Seed

  Art, People, Feelings

  Interview with Emily McDermott, www.interviewmagazine.com. January 29, 2016.

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• I'm trying to create artwork that makes people, and myself, think about judgment as a reflex. This is something that must be changed.

  eL Seed

  Thinking, People, Trying

  "eL Seed’s New Home". Interview with Emily McDermott, www.interviewmagazine.com. January 28, 2016.

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• Everywhere I've been, from South Africa to Brazil, people are connected to it. For me, art is a way to bring people together. You can put people on the same level, the perception is the same. You can bring a worker, like a cleaning guy, or the richest guy on earth, and they will have the same feeling or they would be able to feel the same.

  eL Seed

  Art, People, Guy

  "eL Seed’s New Home". Interview with Emily McDermott, www.interviewmagazine.com. January 28, 2016.

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• It was an identity crisis. I was born and raised in France, but I never really felt French, so I needed to find something that I was more connected to. I used to go back to Tunisia every summer, but I was more into the language, my Arabic roots.

  eL Seed

  Summer, Roots, Identity

  Interview with Emily McDermott, www.interviewmagazine.com. January 29, 2016.

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• I'm more into the perception scope of a work; I'm exploring this concept of perception and how people can look at someone, look at the community, and put in so much judgment, so much stereotype, so much misconception.

  eL Seed

  People, Community, Perception

  Interview with Emily McDermott, www.interviewmagazine.com. January 29, 2016.

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• "eL Seed" was inspired by the French play Le Cid by Pierre Corneille. It was seeing "Le Cid" coming from the Arabic name "el sayed," which means "the master, the man." So I called myself like that because I was 16; I said, "Yes, I'm the man." That's how it started.

  eL Seed

  Mean, Men, Play

  "eL Seed’s New Home". Interview with Emily McDermott, www.interviewmagazine.com. January 28, 2016.

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• When actually, you have one identity made of different parts. Depending on where you are, at what time in your life, some things are higher or deeper. That's what I understood later: that I'm French and Tunisian, and I'm accepting the French part of my identity.

  eL Seed

  Identity, Different, Accepting

  Interview with Emily McDermott, www.interviewmagazine.com. January 29, 2016.

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• You meet a lot of people [in Dubai] coming from a lot of different places. Even me, I'm always in transit. I don't stay anywhere too long. I like the energy that I found when I came here the first time. I start knowing people, and people start knowing me as well.

  eL Seed

  Dubai, Knowing, Long

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Sometimes the reading is related to something I do, sometimes it's not. I feel like every time I read something, there's a quote or something that comes [into the work] later. There's nothing that happens by coincidence. It's fate, I would say.

  eL Seed

  Reading, Fate, Coincidence

  Interview with Emily McDermott, www.interviewmagazine.com. January 29, 2016.

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• In France, they make you feel that you cannot be two things at the same time. You can't be French and Arabic; you can't be French and Muslim.

  eL Seed

  Two, France, Two Things

  Interview with Emily McDermott, www.interviewmagazine.com. January 29, 2016.

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• I couldn't know about my culture, my history, without learning the language, so I started learning Arabic - reading, writing. I used to speak Arabic before that, but Tunisian Arabic dialect. Step by step, I discovered calligraphy. I painted before and I just brought the calligraphy into my artwork. That's how everything started. The funny thing is the fact that going back to my roots made me feel French.

  eL Seed

  Reading, Writing, Funny Things

  Interview with Emily McDermott, www.interviewmagazine.com. January 29, 2016.

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• I've been working a lot with identity and roots, being part of your roots. I went into this topic where I was trying to break the stereotype of Arabic language. The non-translation work, this is where I make the switch, where you don't need to translate.

  eL Seed

  Roots, Trying, Identity

  "eL Seed’s New Home". Interview with Emily McDermott, www.interviewmagazine.com. January 28, 2016.

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