{"id":36440,"date":"2025-03-07T12:30:32","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T10:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/?p=36440"},"modified":"2025-08-19T15:03:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:03:23","slug":"mous-lamrabat-featured-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/mous-lamrabat-featured-artist\/","title":{"rendered":"Mous Lamrabat"},"content":{"rendered":"
Featured artist for March 2025, The Markaz Review showcases Mous Lamrabat\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0solo show,\u00a0Homesick<\/i>, now at Loft Art Gallery<\/a> in Marrakech through the 15th of March. The series is a striking meditation on identity, nostalgia, and cultural fusion. Through twenty powerful new works, the Moroccan-Belgian photographer reimagines heritage with contemporary aesthetics, bridging past and present in an emotional exploration of belonging.<\/h5>\n

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Naima Morelli<\/h4>\n

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An amazon-like figure looks at me from beyond a glass frame. She sits proudly on a donkey in the middle of the desert, wearing a futuristic golden helmet with wings. Her stare reflects defiance and pride, even though she is not necessarily riding the noblest steed. The photograph is called \u201cMariam Had a Little Donkey,\u201d and I experience a minute of deep connection with this lone rider. A second after, I\u2019m carried away by the crowd on the rooftop of the gallery where the show is taking place.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the night of the galleries in Marrakech, and the rooftop of Loft Gallery<\/a>, where the show of Belgian-Moroccan photographer Mous Lamrabat<\/a> is taking place, is overlooking the modernist neighborhood of Gueliz. Here, several art spaces have set foot, participating in an artistic renaissance, which is making Marrakech one of the places to be of contemporary art, alongside Athens and Marseille; all the cities where the Mediterranean instances are creating a new kind of coolness.<\/p>\n

Mous Lambabat\u2019s show, Homesick<\/em>, is taking place during the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair<\/a>, a coherent choice, given that the whole Marrakech art scene is in the process of strengthening its cultural connection with the wider Africa. The show speaks of an expanded sense of home and community, and the glam element of the vernissage night didn\u2019t dim at all a widespread sensation in the Moroccan city, namely the one of being home, of being one big community.<\/p>\n

The idea of being united by love is all over the image of the artist. Love here seems to be not just as a feeling, but rather an unveiling of a fundamental unity, and is all over the artist\u2019s photographs, from silver grills stating \u201cI Love You\u201d in Arabic, to figures making heart signs with their hands or wearing glasses frame forming the word \u201cLove\u201d <\/a>or even veiled faces reminiscent of Magritte kissing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Lamrabat articulated in FishEye Magazine, \u201cI was inspired by this idea of a very strong, very romantic love, which we\u2019re used to seeing in American films. But I also remembered my parents, who saw each other for the first time on their wedding day, and who are still very happy together. I wanted to have a bit of fun with the meaning of the expression. Others, too, see two women kissing… In the end, the veil covering the faces is so mysterious that each person draws their own conclusion. And that’s fine! The important thing is love. That simple emotion, that solution to everything. It’s something that speaks to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n