Kolona Min Torab كلنا من تراب (We are all made of Earth): Artwork Focus | M'barek Bouhchichi

20 November 2024 - 20 January 2025
  • Born 1975. in Akka, Morocco | Lives and works in Tahanaout, Morocco M'barek Bouhchichi gives shape to modes of expression...

    Born 1975. in Akka, Morocco | Lives and works in Tahanaout, Morocco

     

    M'barek Bouhchichi gives shape to modes of expression that move from the individual discourse towards broader social, poetic and historic systems. There is an individual voice that enables a re-writing of the self, that runs throughout his work. It is a thought process unfolding in acts that the artist signifies with the exchange between the idea and the experience of the work. His artworks propose a dual reading that depends the artist's personal understanding, and a reading that is guided by thoughts that are open to being shared and interpreted. 

     

    The works of M'barek Bouhchichi have recently been exhibited at biennials at international institutions including Biennal Sao Paolo, Brasil / Dak'art, 13th edition of the Biennial of Contemporary African Art, Dakar, Senegal / Savvy Contemporary, Berlin, Germany / MUCEM, Marseille, France / Kulte, Rabat, Morocco / Palacio Cadaval, Evora, Portugal. 

  • KOLONA MIN TORAB كلنا من تراب (WE ARE ALL MADE OF EARTH)

    Islamic Arts Biennale (2023) In much of his work, artist M'barek Bouhchichi (b. 1975, Akka, Morocco) considers experiences of race and ethnicity, and how the multiplicity of identities that exist within the Muslim ummah shape how Muslims interact with the world around them. In this work, Bouhchichi attends to the existence of Muslim minority populations and marginalized communities.

    The floor installation Kolona min Torab explores the bond that unites all people-"We Are All Made of Earth." Using 1,288 clay units from the Ourika valley and natural pigments from across Morocco, he has created tiles in various shades that address the complexity of difference in geography, geology, and people. The shape of each tile resembles a doorway or mihrab.
    Photography by Marco Capelletti. Courtesy of Diriyah Biennale Foundation. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Photography by Marco Capelletti. Courtesy of Diriyah Biennale Foundation. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Photography by Marco Capelletti. Courtesy of Diriyah Biennale Foundation. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Photography by Marco Capelletti. Courtesy of Diriyah Biennale Foundation. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

    Photography by Marco Capelletti. Courtesy of Diriyah Biennale Foundation.

  • "The earth has a calming influence on our perceptions of 'living together' - we share it and it divides us. I question the earth as a common bond and a horizontal and equal relationship because in its wide range of shades it mirrors our colors as human beings and injects poetry into our approaches to life because 'we are made of earth'. To propose this vision in such a simple plastic form in the face of the complexity that these theories of diversity and race take on is the goal. The shape is reminiscent of the fullness of a doorway, a space of passage, life as a passageway, and at the same time to recall and remember in the idea of repetition as something essential."

  • Images from the Ourika valley in the Moroccan High Atlas

    • M’barek Bouhchichi, Kolona Min Torab كلنا من تراب (We are all made of Earth), 2023
      M’barek Bouhchichi, Kolona Min Torab كلنا من تراب (We are all made of Earth), 2023
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