Exhibitions
Display and the dialogue between memory and creation by Sara Ouhaddou
Display , Sara Ouhaddou's latest exhibition, is on display at the Al Maaden Museum of Contemporary African Art (MACAAL) in Marrakech, in collaboration with Ifa Gallery Berlin, and curated by Meriem Berrada and Alya Sebti. This exhibition, which runs until June 29, invites viewers on a sensitive journey through history, memory, and tradition, using age-old objects as its guiding thread. These objects, under the artist's gaze, are given new life and meaning.
Ouhaddou investigates the genealogy and function of each object, unraveling its history and reinterpreting it alongside expert artisans. Her practice stems from a desire to rebuild the connections between Morocco and France, while engaging with other distant yet intimate geographies rooted in her personal experience. Guided by a personal alphabet, her work fuses Arabic calligraphy, the evocative power of Amazigh poetry, and the precision of Islamic geometry, creating abstractions that defy scale, materials, and technical limitations, with the intention of reviving ancestral gestures and forgotten traditions.
Beyond formal experimentation, Sara Ouhaddou seeks to empower those who participate in her creations, preserving knowledge and techniques that could be lost to global homogenization. Her work reflects on the relationship between art, economics, and development, questioning traditional creative processes and the social role of art.
Through Display , the artist delves into the previous lives of objects, weaving stories of power, resilience, and cultural continuity. Each piece becomes a bridge between tradition and innovation, an intimate dialogue between artist and artisan, between past and present, where the creative gesture is transformed into an act of memory, preservation, and transformation.
