Sara Sadik: La Potion
17th January, 2025 — 1st March, 2025
Annka Kultys Gallery
Unit 9
472 Hackney Road
London E2 9EQ
ANNKA KULTYS GALLERY is pleased to present an exhibition of a single-channel video by Sara Sadik (b. 1994). This will be the Bordeaux-born, Marseille–based artist’s debut solo presentation with ANNKA KULTYS GALLERY and her first solo exhibition in London.
La Potion (EH) (2023), Sara Sadik’s elegiac work of video art commences with a narrator who introduces a new video game and like us, is looking at the ‘gameplay’ for the first time. However, this game features an avatar of himself. Stressed and anxious the avatar sets out on a walk looking for light and healing: “We will seek happiness since it does not come to us.” Like a magic drink, La Potion takes the narrator/avatar on a journey to find a way to feel better. Imagining constellations in the sky, walking through a beautiful garden, jumping towards the sea and swimming beneath the waves he feels soothed and calmed.
Comissionned by BMW Open Work, Frieze London
Image courtesy of Annka Kultys Gallery
Sadik’s work seeks to make visible the lives of the Maghrebi youth of France and especially the second-generation emigres from former French colonies of North Africa, who make up 28% of the population of France. Often inspired by real people she knows in her hometown of Marseille the artist explores masculine identity through computer-generated fantasy scenarios.
By placing her characters in an imaginary world, she takes them out of the physical reality of contemporary urban life with all its barriers and politics. As Sadik says, “the story exists elsewhere” and a new reality is created for them. Elevated from their overlooked lives, in her stories they become heroes. “Do you remember how we started the game?” asks the avatar – from a liminal psychological space of darkness full of anxiety and fear, at the conclusion the gamer and his avatar seemed fused in a moment of peace.
Comissionned by BMW Open Work, Frieze London
Image courtesy of Annka Kultys Gallery
Artists’ film and video art since the 1960s has revolutionised the art world. Embraced as a new open-ended means of expression, moving image and animation allow artists to fully exploit the immersive qualities of time-based media. With Sadik the medium continues to evolve into new territory.
About Sara Sadik
Sara Sadik was born in 1994 in Bordeaux, she lives and works in Marseille, France. She received a master’s degree from Bordeaux School of Fine Arts, France.
Her work has also been included in important solo exhibitions, such as ANNKA KULTYS GALLERY, London (2025); FACT, Liverpool (2024); Mire Project, Genève (2024); Tick Tack, Antwerp, Belgium (2024); LUMA, Arles, France (2023); Basement Roma (2023); Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai (2023); and Crèvecœur, Paris (2022). As well as works in group exhibitions at Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (2024); Singapore Art Museum (2023); Centre Pompidou, Metz, France (2023); Gladstone Gallery, New York (2022); Sadie Coles HQ, London (2021).
Photography by Émile Samory Fofana
Selected press mentions of Sara Sadik include Cura Magazine, Frieze, Flash Art, Le monde, Art Plugged, Forbes, Art Basel, and BMW Group.
The artist’s work is held in public collections worldwide, including Fonds cantonal d’art contemporain, Geneva; Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon; Fondation Lafayette Anticipation, Paris; Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris; Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris; FRAC Nouvelle – Aquitaine MÉCA, Bordeaux, France; FRAC Provence – Alpes – Côte d’Azur, Marseille, France; FRAC Champagne – Ardenne, Reims, France; Fonds Communal d’Art Contemporain, Marseille, France.
Sara Sadik: La Potion opens on the 17th of January, 2025, until the 1st of March, 2025, at Annka Kultys Gallery
©2025 ANNKA KULTYS GALLERY
Art Plugged is a contemporary platform inspired by a relationship with the broader arts communities. We provide our audience with curated insight into the world of art, from exhibitions to artist interviews and more.
