A group show at the MACAAL in Marrakech explores cultural and capital effects on materiality in art, from some of the most attentive artists currently working on the continent and beyond.
The group show is curated by Meriem Berrada, Artistic Director at MACAAL & Head of Cultural Projects at Fondation Alliances & Janine Gaëlle Dieudji, Exhibitions Director at MACAAL. Meriem Berrada affirmed: “The works that form Material Insanity go far beyond the renaissance of waste plastics or agro-food industry scraps as artistic objects; they become powerful visual metaphors which tackle topics such as social domination in M’barek Bouhchichi conceptual research, migratory movements of Mahama’s and reinterpreting ancestral craft in visual artwork like Amina Agueznay.”
Material Insanity reacts to a growing interest in contemporary art directed towards a focus on transient or intangible artworks, often seen as a reaction against globalization and consumerism. This can be seen in works such as Clay Apenouvon’s (Togo and France) stretched black plastic film, Owanto’s (Gabon) embroideries exhumed from the collective memory and Cyrus Kabiru’s (Kenya) material reinvention of electronic waste in the form of sculptural eyewear.
Re-assembling materials often associated with trade and waste as artworks, artists including Nari Ward (Jamaica), Beya Gille Gacha (Cameroon and France), Fatiha Zemmouri (Morocco), M’barek Bouhchichi (Morocco), Hassan Bourkia (Morocco) and Malek Gnaoui (Tunisia), use materialism as representations of memory, migration, societal expectations and tradition. Through their selected media they expose traces of many individual journeys and histories, illuminating the multiplicity of stories within the contemporary climate.
Exhibition Dates | 26.02 to 15.08.2019
MACAAL
Marrakesh, Morocco
Mon orge je le laisse chez les gens de bien,
Et s’il leur arrive d’en manquer,
Je leur en prête d’avantage.
M’barek Bouhchichi. 2019