“
For her first solo exhibition in France, Ghita Skali develops a project that takes as
its starting point the objects, traces, and stories that persist, or emerge, after the
death of those close to us. By attending to these remains, she shifts our gaze:
it is no longer simply a matter of thinking about disappearance, but rather of
considering what continues to act. The focus is put on the everyday practices
of the living: speaking to the dead, keeping objects, reading signs, and summo-
ning presences in dreams. Rather than reducing these experiences to subjective
projections or mere coincidences, this project proposes to approach them as
legitimate forms of knowledge and connection. What is at stake is that we take an
active, relational engagement with the dead seriously: making the departed exist
in our gestures, our stories, and our spaces. “Letting the dead live”, to borrow
Vinciane Despret’s formulation, is not a metaphor. It is a way of contesting the
regimes of truth that assign death to absence and silence.
Which stories are deemed acceptable? Which gestures are dismissed as supersti- tion, irrationality, or pathology? WHAT REMAINS, what we keep and what we leave behind, opens a space for sharing the lived experience of grief, outside normative frameworks. It invites us to bring forward stories that are often left unspoken, to recognize their legitimacy, and to be reminded that we stay connected. This reflection is inseparable from a political one. Ghita Skali examines the mecha- nisms of circulation, belonging, and constraint that continue to bear upon bodies after death. What becomes of a body when it is confronted with borders, admi- nistrative frameworks, exclusionary laws, and cultural expectations? Whether or not to choose to return to one’s country of birth, and the logistical realities that complicate that choice, the body of the deceased emerges as a space of tension. The artist sheds light on a form of insidious violence: endless drifting that conti- nues even after death. Grief thus becomes a place where relations of power are revealed, but also where possibilities of reclaiming and choosing begin to open.
Which stories are deemed acceptable? Which gestures are dismissed as supersti- tion, irrationality, or pathology? WHAT REMAINS, what we keep and what we leave behind, opens a space for sharing the lived experience of grief, outside normative frameworks. It invites us to bring forward stories that are often left unspoken, to recognize their legitimacy, and to be reminded that we stay connected. This reflection is inseparable from a political one. Ghita Skali examines the mecha- nisms of circulation, belonging, and constraint that continue to bear upon bodies after death. What becomes of a body when it is confronted with borders, admi- nistrative frameworks, exclusionary laws, and cultural expectations? Whether or not to choose to return to one’s country of birth, and the logistical realities that complicate that choice, the body of the deceased emerges as a space of tension. The artist sheds light on a form of insidious violence: endless drifting that conti- nues even after death. Grief thus becomes a place where relations of power are revealed, but also where possibilities of reclaiming and choosing begin to open.
During her residency, and through gatherings such as the sessions* and the
death cafés* held at the heart of 3 bis f, Ghita facilitated intimate moments to
speak about experiences of hope and despair in the face of death, and about what
holds us together.
For this exhibition, she puts into words and color, and not without humor, a mul- titude of stories, ranging from anonymous anecdotes to fiction, from childhood memories to family ties: all markers of our bodies, our anger, our anxieties, and our moments of quiet.
On the mauve and yellow painted exhibition walls, colorful drawings and collages occupy a central place. Each frame weaves together rows of numbers and letters of the alphabet, echoing the experience of learning to write at school. Cut sheets of paper and colored drawings are placed alongside her father’s Sudoku grids. These assemblages, accompanied by some fifteen small drawings known as an- xiety drawings, and underlined by a frieze of bow ties running along the walls, explore the idea of transmission and the bonds that outlast absence. Ghita has recently completed the crossword puzzles her father left unfinished; stories are passed on, recomposed, and transformed endlessly.
In the same space, a wooden bookcase brings together the books for adults and children alike that accompanied the artist during her research, works sometimes recommended to her, sometimes chosen and read by her alone. Conceived as a space for shared reading and open to everyone, the bookcase is a simple offering of thoughtful books to read or browse on site.
The video What Remains, projected onto one the mauve-painted wall is construc- ted both as a news broadcast and as Ghita’s personal reflection on burial and funeral practices in the West. By implication and using anecdotes, it weaves together words, objects, intimate rituals, and sociological research, leading to questions of belonging and our connection to the earth. The artist also dwells on how collective mourning is constructed, constrained or rendered impossible in times of conflict and massacre.
In the former isolation cells, these spaces that hold the memory of 3 bis f’s his- tory within the Hôpital Montperrin, the artist has chosen to remove the doors and back walls, laying bare the original structure of the space.
By approaching grief not merely as a state of sadness but as an experience to be lived, Ghita Skali remains attentive to what we keep and what we let go. Fabrics, music, lemon tarts, tiramisus, shoes, dandelions, and mimosa flowers, all fla- shes of thought (*food for thoughts) that bring those who have left us to mind, and invite us to walk alongside our past, to find the joys that lift us, and our own ways of being.”
For this exhibition, she puts into words and color, and not without humor, a mul- titude of stories, ranging from anonymous anecdotes to fiction, from childhood memories to family ties: all markers of our bodies, our anger, our anxieties, and our moments of quiet.
On the mauve and yellow painted exhibition walls, colorful drawings and collages occupy a central place. Each frame weaves together rows of numbers and letters of the alphabet, echoing the experience of learning to write at school. Cut sheets of paper and colored drawings are placed alongside her father’s Sudoku grids. These assemblages, accompanied by some fifteen small drawings known as an- xiety drawings, and underlined by a frieze of bow ties running along the walls, explore the idea of transmission and the bonds that outlast absence. Ghita has recently completed the crossword puzzles her father left unfinished; stories are passed on, recomposed, and transformed endlessly.
In the same space, a wooden bookcase brings together the books for adults and children alike that accompanied the artist during her research, works sometimes recommended to her, sometimes chosen and read by her alone. Conceived as a space for shared reading and open to everyone, the bookcase is a simple offering of thoughtful books to read or browse on site.
The video What Remains, projected onto one the mauve-painted wall is construc- ted both as a news broadcast and as Ghita’s personal reflection on burial and funeral practices in the West. By implication and using anecdotes, it weaves together words, objects, intimate rituals, and sociological research, leading to questions of belonging and our connection to the earth. The artist also dwells on how collective mourning is constructed, constrained or rendered impossible in times of conflict and massacre.
In the former isolation cells, these spaces that hold the memory of 3 bis f’s his- tory within the Hôpital Montperrin, the artist has chosen to remove the doors and back walls, laying bare the original structure of the space.
By approaching grief not merely as a state of sadness but as an experience to be lived, Ghita Skali remains attentive to what we keep and what we let go. Fabrics, music, lemon tarts, tiramisus, shoes, dandelions, and mimosa flowers, all fla- shes of thought (*food for thoughts) that bring those who have left us to mind, and invite us to walk alongside our past, to find the joys that lift us, and our own ways of being.”
Written by Marie de Gaulejac
*session : a moment of collective sharing around artistic creation, proposed by the artists in residence as an integral part of their artistic process.
*death cafés : a concept created by sociologist Bernard Crettaz in 2004; a café mortel is a convivial gathering where people come together to speak freely about death. It offers a space for open, non-judgmental exchange, breaking taboos and reflecting together on the end of life.
*food for thoughts : anecdotes collected by the artist during death cafés in this last year. They are staged as a TV show, in her video.
To our dead (À nos mort•es)
Participatory piece, in-situ
What Remains (Ce qui reste)
30-minute video installation with the scent of
mimosas
Actress: Misty Superdeluxe
Camera & editing assistant: Vincent Pajot
Assistant director: Gaëlle Farah
Production assistant: Léo Ravy
Sound mixing & sound creation: Monzer el Hachem
Countdown (Des chiffres et des lettres)
16 collages from children’s notebooks,
crosswords, and sudoku grids (remaining objects) with repetitive wall frieze with 117 bow ties (remaining
objects)
Anxiety drawings (Dessins d’anxiété)
15 drawings, pastels on paper, some panic attacks, frames with repetitive wall frieze with 117 bow ties (remaining
objects).
Skies Seen from the Earth (Ciels vus de la terre)
Prints on cut carpets
In-situ Bibliography
Shelf: books read or flipped through during this
project
Death cafés
Public program of the exhibition: Death Cafés are organized on the 30th April, 4th June, 4th July, 29th August 2026 from 3 to 5 pm.
Cells Laid Bare (Cellules mises à nues)
Doors end backward walls taken out, mimosa
scent
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SPECIAL THANKS
Fatiha Allagui, Myriam Amri, Salim Bayri, Clémentine Bourda, Kaoutar Chaqchaq,
Sophie Clot, Romain Cuvilliez, Collectif Déterre, Marie de Gaulejac, Catherine Jouve,
Malek Lakhal, Jasmine Lebert, Paco Lenoble, Laure Leslé, Morgane Manscour,
Aude Christel Mgba, Alexia Montout, Régis Moustier, Ayla Mrabet, Léo Ravy, Claire Royer,
Sylvain Rollandin, Amélie Senez, Malika Skali, Nolwenn Vuillier, and all the participants of death cafés at le 3 bis f in 2026.
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Graphic Design by Léo Ravy
Photos by jc & Louise Lett
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In memory of those who left and are still with us.
Press Leakage
︎ 2026: What remains, l’expo qui reste - by Léa Cesari - Flaix
︎ 2026: L’exploration du deuil au 3bisF - by Malik Teffahi Richard - Aix en Provence Culture