“Inspired by my dreams, pushed by my curiosity, guided by my heart.”
Zaïa Lebtahi
I grew up in the middle of nowhere, in a lost unknown village of Northern France where nobody wants to go.
In the fields, my two brothers, my seven sisters, my eight cousins and I were playing, were recreating the big Hollywood productions that we saw on our black and white television screen.
Also, because I was dreaming of cinema, I created my own imaginary world to escape the noisy group of my siblings and to try to exist on my own.
I was writing, dancing, singing, creating costumes and even perfumes with rose petals.
I wanted to succeed to give hope and make all those that I loved dream, especially my parents.
So while waiting to fly away, I was the best at school and worked hard at the neighbors’ farm to offer gifts to my Mom.
I might have been born an artist to survive, embracing the beauty and the bright side of this world and by expressing my emotions.
Too sensitive to not be affected by the violence of our world but also its great love, I had to learn to communicate to others the emotions that overwhelmed me.
It was essential to me therefore to give them the best of myself to make sure that they would still love me.
With the time, the obstacles I had to overcome, the failures, and the pain that I had to endure, I learned to surpass myself and understood that I was not alone but could be united with others if only I was able to love myself.
To love and accept myself has to be the biggest challenge of my life, and I’m still working on it, but I understood that it could give me what I always sought for; freedom, happiness and immortality.
It gave me the clarity that enabled me to finally embrace this whole world freely and without fear, which gave me Happiness.
I have been able to receive this gift from life because my love for others has always been stronger than anything.
I always worked to try to communicate with them.
I always wanted to give them what I was dreaming to receive from them.
I always wanted to believe that there was something else, somewhere else than the sad world that was given to me.
Each second of my life, I preyed, trembled, breathed, hoped, dreamed, fought, for this better place, this lighted place of hope, love, freedom, and happiness and that I always knew I should never wait for, even when I was dying of waiting for it.
I was trying, searching and, above all, I was working, working, working, working, and working again and again, night and day, day and night, every day of my life, even when I was sleeping, to find this peaceful place.
The work gave me and still gives me everything.
It gave me confidence, better knowledge of who I was and therefore, the powerful ability to free myself.
During the long years of solitude and discourage and all the little deaths that I have lived, I have always chosen to follow the light and to believe that Happiness does exist.
After all this time, a life time, I found out that Happiness is the Truth and I got rewarded for my constant faith.
Never let go even if you are at the bottom, dying!
Never let go of continuing to work, embracing who you are to embrace others!
‘Work.’ is the last word that my dad told me before passing away.
Working is what he did all his life.
Today he is alive inside me like all the people who are linked to me by an unconditional and eternal love.
The power of love gives you immortality and invincibility.
This infinite power is what we have INSIDE of us.
Very young, I left my family and so many friends behind me to continue to follow my path.
I did die many times, but I survived thanks to the ones who survived before me and that I made my mentors.
I found them in my books and in my life.
They were mostly Artists but not only. I learned from anybody who was dead or alive that I could get something from or share anything with.
I always have been curious of others. I have always wanted and still want to discover and learn anything, everything!
I studied philosophy to study everything at the same time: Logic, Art, Math, Law, Politics, History, Language, Psychology, Neurology, Film, Dramaturgy, Theatre, Music…
I read, write, listen, watch, feel, discover and constantly learn what this world has to offer.
I listen to others everyday, to their music, their paintings and all the ways they express their lives, trying to understand how they do to survive, to create, to ‘surcreate’, and how they do to be Happy and in Peace.
I opened my eyes, my ears, my heart more and more until I could see, hear and feel more clearly who I am.
Giacometti says that we only know what we see by working.
WORK GIVES YOU THE ABILITY TO SEE WHO YOU ARE and the confidence that you need to show yourself at the same time, to EXIST.
I left Paris when I found out that USA was the place for me because Americans are positive workers and they are united.
Here, I dared to show myself because people don’t judge you.
They encourage you to be yourself, to free yourself and they are turned toward the future.
They keep doing, giving the best of themselves, challenging themselves.
They fight discrimination to get the best of anyone.
They understood the strength of the group’s unity and the evident fact that anybody has something to bring to the community.
Even the homeless or the handicap people work!
In USA, thanks to this positive education and way of life, I got the best motivation to push myself to totally become the whole Artist that I am.
In a few years of constant challenges, I learned to change myself more everyday in this country than anywhere else.
Every minute of my life my motivation to give the best is growing.
Life is a trip in hell or Paradise depending of the way we choose to see the world.
I lost myself many times in hell but I always went back toward the light thanks to my love for others.
I always choose the bright side and my desire has always been to share my own artistic world with the most of you.
I understood that if I had the courage to accept my solitude as an artist, to find my own identity to express my subjective point of view, then I will probably be able to give a more objective and universal vision of the essence of our world.
The more we can embrace and share our own diversity of particularities, the more we will approach the essentiality of what we are and the fairness and truth of each thing in this world.
I want to show and share my own vision to meet the other most particular and specific ones because I think that the more differences we approach and discover, the more we approach tolerance and syncretism with others.
The more we are approaching the truth that there is no truth but acceptation of all the truths, the more we can approach the best Idea of Goodness.
For me Art is a dream built to stay awake and it's the most important political act to preserve the fire of life.
Art is a creation of love to surpass finiteness and reach Eternity.
It's the world of imagination in which the eternal child that I am, wants to stay.
My biggest dream is to fly. If I can share my trip with you, my heart will bloom with happiness!
I believe in Art not only because it is free and it makes people survive, but especially because it is the only way to open our minds and hearts to embrace others by embracing the different points of view that our world proposes.
Art is not bad or good, for me it is the way to move forward all together in synchronicity and it is a proposition of Love.
I am happy to be an Artist and my only goal is to share with you my happiness unconditionally and freely!
Welcome into my dreams!
Zaïa Lebtahi
Zaïa Lebtahi
I grew up in the middle of nowhere, in a lost unknown village of Northern France where nobody wants to go.
In the fields, my two brothers, my seven sisters, my eight cousins and I were playing, were recreating the big Hollywood productions that we saw on our black and white television screen.
Also, because I was dreaming of cinema, I created my own imaginary world to escape the noisy group of my siblings and to try to exist on my own.
I was writing, dancing, singing, creating costumes and even perfumes with rose petals.
I wanted to succeed to give hope and make all those that I loved dream, especially my parents.
So while waiting to fly away, I was the best at school and worked hard at the neighbors’ farm to offer gifts to my Mom.
I might have been born an artist to survive, embracing the beauty and the bright side of this world and by expressing my emotions.
Too sensitive to not be affected by the violence of our world but also its great love, I had to learn to communicate to others the emotions that overwhelmed me.
It was essential to me therefore to give them the best of myself to make sure that they would still love me.
With the time, the obstacles I had to overcome, the failures, and the pain that I had to endure, I learned to surpass myself and understood that I was not alone but could be united with others if only I was able to love myself.
To love and accept myself has to be the biggest challenge of my life, and I’m still working on it, but I understood that it could give me what I always sought for; freedom, happiness and immortality.
It gave me the clarity that enabled me to finally embrace this whole world freely and without fear, which gave me Happiness.
I have been able to receive this gift from life because my love for others has always been stronger than anything.
I always worked to try to communicate with them.
I always wanted to give them what I was dreaming to receive from them.
I always wanted to believe that there was something else, somewhere else than the sad world that was given to me.
Each second of my life, I preyed, trembled, breathed, hoped, dreamed, fought, for this better place, this lighted place of hope, love, freedom, and happiness and that I always knew I should never wait for, even when I was dying of waiting for it.
I was trying, searching and, above all, I was working, working, working, working, and working again and again, night and day, day and night, every day of my life, even when I was sleeping, to find this peaceful place.
The work gave me and still gives me everything.
It gave me confidence, better knowledge of who I was and therefore, the powerful ability to free myself.
During the long years of solitude and discourage and all the little deaths that I have lived, I have always chosen to follow the light and to believe that Happiness does exist.
After all this time, a life time, I found out that Happiness is the Truth and I got rewarded for my constant faith.
Never let go even if you are at the bottom, dying!
Never let go of continuing to work, embracing who you are to embrace others!
‘Work.’ is the last word that my dad told me before passing away.
Working is what he did all his life.
Today he is alive inside me like all the people who are linked to me by an unconditional and eternal love.
The power of love gives you immortality and invincibility.
This infinite power is what we have INSIDE of us.
Very young, I left my family and so many friends behind me to continue to follow my path.
I did die many times, but I survived thanks to the ones who survived before me and that I made my mentors.
I found them in my books and in my life.
They were mostly Artists but not only. I learned from anybody who was dead or alive that I could get something from or share anything with.
I always have been curious of others. I have always wanted and still want to discover and learn anything, everything!
I studied philosophy to study everything at the same time: Logic, Art, Math, Law, Politics, History, Language, Psychology, Neurology, Film, Dramaturgy, Theatre, Music…
I read, write, listen, watch, feel, discover and constantly learn what this world has to offer.
I listen to others everyday, to their music, their paintings and all the ways they express their lives, trying to understand how they do to survive, to create, to ‘surcreate’, and how they do to be Happy and in Peace.
I opened my eyes, my ears, my heart more and more until I could see, hear and feel more clearly who I am.
Giacometti says that we only know what we see by working.
WORK GIVES YOU THE ABILITY TO SEE WHO YOU ARE and the confidence that you need to show yourself at the same time, to EXIST.
I left Paris when I found out that USA was the place for me because Americans are positive workers and they are united.
Here, I dared to show myself because people don’t judge you.
They encourage you to be yourself, to free yourself and they are turned toward the future.
They keep doing, giving the best of themselves, challenging themselves.
They fight discrimination to get the best of anyone.
They understood the strength of the group’s unity and the evident fact that anybody has something to bring to the community.
Even the homeless or the handicap people work!
In USA, thanks to this positive education and way of life, I got the best motivation to push myself to totally become the whole Artist that I am.
In a few years of constant challenges, I learned to change myself more everyday in this country than anywhere else.
Every minute of my life my motivation to give the best is growing.
Life is a trip in hell or Paradise depending of the way we choose to see the world.
I lost myself many times in hell but I always went back toward the light thanks to my love for others.
I always choose the bright side and my desire has always been to share my own artistic world with the most of you.
I understood that if I had the courage to accept my solitude as an artist, to find my own identity to express my subjective point of view, then I will probably be able to give a more objective and universal vision of the essence of our world.
The more we can embrace and share our own diversity of particularities, the more we will approach the essentiality of what we are and the fairness and truth of each thing in this world.
I want to show and share my own vision to meet the other most particular and specific ones because I think that the more differences we approach and discover, the more we approach tolerance and syncretism with others.
The more we are approaching the truth that there is no truth but acceptation of all the truths, the more we can approach the best Idea of Goodness.
For me Art is a dream built to stay awake and it's the most important political act to preserve the fire of life.
Art is a creation of love to surpass finiteness and reach Eternity.
It's the world of imagination in which the eternal child that I am, wants to stay.
My biggest dream is to fly. If I can share my trip with you, my heart will bloom with happiness!
I believe in Art not only because it is free and it makes people survive, but especially because it is the only way to open our minds and hearts to embrace others by embracing the different points of view that our world proposes.
Art is not bad or good, for me it is the way to move forward all together in synchronicity and it is a proposition of Love.
I am happy to be an Artist and my only goal is to share with you my happiness unconditionally and freely!
Welcome into my dreams!
Zaïa Lebtahi