Toni Maraini Rome, October 2017. It was in Rome that I met Mohammed Chebaa in 1961. At the time, that was how he wrote his name. I admit having some difficulty reprogramming the spelling and pronunciation in Mohammed Chabâa … But here it is, it’s done! So, I got to know Mohammed Chabâa, in Rome, where he was studying, at the Academy of […]
Abdelatif Laâbi Créteil, August 2010. The Moroccan cultural scene offers an unusual curiosity … in other climates. It is not customary, when presenting the work of one of our creators (painter, poet or other), to speak of the man (or of the woman), to take into account the process of his intellectual training, his life experience, including intimacy, a fortiori the traits of […]
Mohamed Melehi Casablanca, October 2017. Over the time we have shared, throughout our lives and on different occasions, our friendship and our positions have spread our careers as artists. What my memory bequeaths to me, among other things, are childhood memories: my meetings with Si Mohammed Chabâa, in Assilah, between the ages of 9 and 12 years old. It was during his stays […]
This intervention will gain momentum in the argument concerning the visual arts and pan-Arab identity. However, I will tackle the subject – ignored for various reasons – of “popular arts and crafts”, qualified as crafts in Morocco. The subject has already been broached here under the theme “Plastic arts and pan-Arab union”, but it has only been dealt with in terms of popular activity […]
To compare the Moroccan plastic movement with the movements in the rest of the Arab world, we notice that it is distinguished by the following paradox: the artistic scene in Morocco has reached a certain level of maturity both in theoretical and practical terms, but suffers, however, from a number of artists as creative as a rather low high cultural level. Of this, we […]