Quarterly

Summer 2013 | Gallery

Biographies

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Hicham Berrada

Born in 1986 in Casablanca in Morocco, Hicham Berrada lives and works in Paris, France.
He is a graduate of the National Fine Arts Academy of Paris (ENSBA) in 2011 and continues his researches in activations of various scientific processes in the national Studio of the contemporary arts, Le Fresnoy.
He participates in several collective exhibitions in Paris, Brussels, Casablanca and Beirut, before realizing, in February, 2013, its first solo exhibition in the Palace of Tokyo, Modules PierreBergé-Yves Saint Laurent.

Two things are implicit Hicham Berrada’s work – both equally fundamental to our relationship with the world and with reality here and now in our culture.  The first thing is that nature governs us. We are animals, such is our condition; the place we live in is the same that we exploit.  The second is that we are separate from it. Think of the Age of Enlightenment and the history of our thoughts: we make ourselves out to be masters and owners, we alone possess reason. We feel that we exist outside of nature.  Berrada’’s work derives from this antagonism, and serves as a means of reconciling these two tendencies, reflecting how we act and how we perceive nature as uncreated raw material. Where we come from.

 

Zineb Andress Arraki

Born in 1984, Zineb Andress Arraki lives and works in Casablanca.  She grew up in Casablanca before studying architecture in Paris. At  Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture, she met her mentor and professor, Lionel Lemire, who introduced her “to the observation of irregularities in the World,” she said. This encounter was the beginning of an inquest that would refine her position in the world she lives in. Her thesis “Et si le noir fabriquait l’architecture? “(What would happen if blacks practiced architecture?) is the genesis of her overall approach. In it she defines her own frames of reference.

Mobilogy, questioning the usual is a daily experience. Using her BlackBerry and Facebook, she has been posting a triptych every day since 2008; as if she is telling a story in three pictures. This original approach is intended to question the usual, the trivial, the everyday. To incite curiousity.

As for Zineb Andress Arraki’s traditional photographs, they are born from her life encounters, from the situations that she must face. She invents her own rules to share her feelings, shaping her approach and determining her uniqueness. Her work combines architecture, photography, sculpture and video.

 

Alya Sebti

Alya Sebti is the Artistic Director of the 5th Marrakech Biennale and curator specialized in contemporary art from North Africa.  Following the fair management of Paris Photo 2009, she became manager of International Contemporary Art at AhM, including Diptyk art magazine, CMOOA gallery and the Marrakech Art Fair.

Since 2011 she works as independent curator. Her latest exhibitions include: Reza Aramesh solo show (Rabat, 2010), Meriem Bouderbala solo show (Rabat, 2010), Zoulikha Bouabdellah solo show (Rabat, 2011) Youssef Nabil “You never left” (Casablanca, 2011), Urban landscape (Amsterdam Photography Biennale, 2012), Des Espaces Autres (Casablanca, 2012). She also initiated and co curates the “Arte East cycle of exhibition on Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia” (2012 to 2014).

 

Holiday Powers

Holiday Powers is the coordinator of the 5th Marrakech Biennale. She is a doctoral candidate at Cornell University, where her research focuses on modernism in Morocco, and particularly the Casablanca school. She has published multiple articles on modern and contemporary art in Morocco, including for Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art and the reader for the 4th Marrakech Biennale, Higher Atlas/Au-Delà de l’Atlas: The Marrakech Biennale [4] in Context. She is currently based in Amman, Jordan as the first recipient of the Darat al Funun Dissertation Fellowship for the Study of Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World.

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