In this breakthrough series of photographs, Mohamed Bourouissa chose to appropriate the codes of history painting. The artist composed his photos by staging scenes with his friends and acquaintances in…

In this breakthrough series of photographs, Mohamed Bourouissa chose to appropriate the codes of history painting. The artist composed his photos by staging scenes with his friends and acquaintances in the Paris banlieues where they used to hang out. Confrontations, gatherings, incidents, looks, and frozen gestures all suggest a palpably dramatic tension. Readings of these images were inflected from the start by the violence of the 2005 riots in the French banlieues. Invoking Delacroix as much as Jeff Wall, the artist appears to give a place in French history to agents whom that country usually neglects.