Biography
Aïcha Khorchid, who goes by the artist’s name Aïcha, was born in 1981 in Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan. Today she lives in the countryside, in Mallorca. Her mother is originally from Palestine and her father from Lebanon. Aïcha comes from a large family; her parents have eight children.
A few days after Aïcha’s birth, the family moves to Lebanon, which has been ravaged by civil war, and barely three weeks later to the greater Paris area. There, the family members receive the status of recognized political refugees.
Once in France, the family is confronted with such precarious economic conditions that would ultimately break it apart. The parents take Aïcha to a regional social and health authority, which places the child in an orphanage.
After two and a half years, Aïcha moves in with foster parents. They live in St Aquilin-de-Corbion in Normandy. The farmer Michel and his wife Chantal have three biological children with whom Aïcha doesn’t get along well. At the age of fourteen, she is again consigned to the care of the authorities and temporarily placed in a clinic under conditions that restrict her personal rights.
This is followed by further foster care, dropping out of school at an early age, traveling by hitchhiking, and the search for her own identity. Aïcha draws the attention of the Youth Welfare Office, which decides to try to reintegrate her into her original family. Aïcha moves in with her family in the Belleville district of Paris. She quickly believes that she can build a sustainable relationship with her mother. But a fortnight later, when she returns from school, she discovers her mother dead in the bathtub. She has committed suicide.
Aïcha is now housed alone in extremely modest conditions in Paris by the social welfare office and receives a meager living allowance. She finishes school. Her earlier training as a dancer at the Conservatoire de danse de Normandie opens up prospects for her. After months as a street performer, Aïcha is hired by cabarets such as Les Trois Mailletz and Rasputin, and she also works as a model in the Parisian fashion world. This is followed by engagements as a dancer in the Caribbean and travels through the island world there.
After her return, Aïcha discovers the Spanish island of Mallorca thanks to the invitation of a friend who lives there. She decides to settle there and initially earns her living as a choreographer, actress, as well as a dancer, working in various ensembles. At the age of twenty-seven, she opens a fashion and decoration business and leads it to success.
After profound personal transformations, Aïcha then embarks on the adventure of painting in 2020. She produces mainly large-format paintings. Rooted in the artist’s biography, they are characterized by a deep authenticity and read as an orchestration of things and events in everyday life as well as Aïcha’s socialization. Regional solo exhibitions soon follow, together with participations in group exhibitions in an international context.