The Palestinian singer’s self-directed video of the song ‘Maskhara’will be on display at the immersive sensory exhibition from Thursday, June 12 to Sunday, June 15, 2025 at 325 Rue Saint‑Martin, 75003 Paris. And tickets are free, though you’ll have to reserve.
It has been thirty years since Le Male, the iconic fragrance by French irreverent designer Jean Paul Gaultier was created. I can remember first smelling the intoxicating scent on the shoe designer at Nine West, where I was a foot model. He would lean in and fit me with a sample and I’d swoon. I ended up buying a bottle for myself and I’d spray a bit on whenever I needed a pick-me-up. It didn’t hurt that Frederic was handsome and elegant. Smelling Le Male made me think he was around, even if just in my twenty-something dreams.
Fast forward thirty years — yes THIRTY years! — and my favorite Palestinian singer Bashar Murad is actually involved in the celebration that the Maison has organized to mark the date.
The immersive sensory exhibition “Et Gaultier créa l’homme – Le Male : Passé, Présent, Futur” is a four day event which will hosted at the Jean Paul Gaultier Maison as part of the 30th anniversary celebration of the iconic Le Male fragrance.
And Murad’s song & self-directed music video “MASKHARA” will be on display from Thursday, June 12 to Sunday, June 15, 2025 at 325 Rue Saint‑Martin, 75003 Paris. Free and open to the public by reservation, the show invites visitors on a journey through scent, fashion, and art, celebrating bold expressions of masculinity and anti-conformism.
“In a world that tries to silence us, art speaks. It holds memory, it holds truth, and it holds the power to shift perception.”
The first time the talented Palestinian singer hailing from East Jerusalem came onto my radar was in the late summer of 2022 when I watched Basil Khalil’s now haunting film — at the time, funny and also touching — titled A Gaza Weekend. The story of an Israeli couple who cross over into Gaza to save themselves from a pandemic which has infected their land, the film turned out to be prophetic but also, sadly, too political for distribution. It’s still one of my fave comedies about the Region, because it mixes great tongue-in-cheek references with a true understanding of the Palestinian way of life. Excluding the usual pathos which festival programmers crave from Palestinians in particular, but also Arabs in general.
At the end of the film, after the laughter and farcical adventures had filled my heart with fun, Murad’s bilingual rendition of Nina Simone’s “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free” came on, and my eyes welled with tears, thick, heavy tears that rolled down my face. When a film, and a song, can do that, they are forever carried inside me, as a point of reference for how art should help us to experience emotions.
Originally released as part of Murad’s debut EP, “Maskhara” is a bold, fashion-infused visual piece that blurs the lines between music video, art film, and satire. Through striking aesthetics and symbolic storytelling, the work sheds light on the social issues faced by young Palestinians, including life under occupation and within a patriarchal context. Directed by Murad himself, “Maskhara” reflects his boundary-pushing approach to music and image, challenging what it means to be seen, celebrated, or silenced.
Positioned as part of the final act of the exhibition, “Maskhara” serves as a political and poetic crescendo — a soundtrack pulsing through the space and contributing to a bold salute to Gaultier’s legacy through a new wave of radical artists.
To book your, free, tickets, check out the exhibition’s website.
Image courtesy of the artist, used with permission.