"My friend the king", 2011, ink and gouache on paper, 40 x 40 cm

Yassine Balbzioui

I'm often asked why I became an artist. The first answer that comes to mind is that art chose me and not the other way around.

But it is the way I have found to express myself through images of all kinds : drawing, painting, photographs, video and installations. It's a way of questioning things that fill me with wonderment, my way of seeing, but also my anxieties and doubts, my evolution and that of others.

I have been drawing since I was a child obsessed with comic book heros  - Goldorak, Conan the Barbarian and Mr Marvel. I attended two art schools, one in Casablanca in Morrocco and then in Bordeaux, France. I've shown my work in Europe, Africa and America and this exposure has enriched my work.

Each series I work on has a life of its own, each is a personal adventure not to be confused with the next one. I am the link between the works: as to meaning I leave clues but it is not up to me to be explicit, that is the work of the spectator. I dislike symbolism. The meaning of an image is so complex that I prefer to hide it, skim over it, and never talk about it. I search for the interior logic of each work. I try to surprise myself - it helps me to survive. It's a way of renewing myself, of accepting that I am fragile, of getting rid of the concept of mastery. I am a committed amateur forever.

Recently my work has focused on dissimulation which I treat with irony in a grotesque style using different media. I draw my images from horror films, my physical experience, my travels and individual or collective performances which I initiate.