Atonale
3 Livrets ︎︎︎ Al Mahal, Selection
1. Home is a place i left Behind par Hicham Gardaf
2. La vache qui rit, par Myriam Mouflih
1. Nass lli keimshiw barra/People how go outside, par Lorén Elhili
Al Mahal takes place in three Moroccan owned shops across London. Three new artist commissions have been developed by Yasmine Benabdallah, Noureddine Ezarraf and Diyae Bourhim. These works are responsive to the poetics of the spaces they inhabit and are hosted by, either through their histories, the histories of their owners or the collective energies and histories surrounding Moroccan migration and the cultures it produces.
Through multiple conversations with the shop owners, alongside broader research into the main three waves of migration from Morocco to the UK, the project attempts to establish a greater sense of Moroccan identity in Britain and hopes to contribute to enabling greater visibility of our history and presence. These conversations have been shared with the artists who are living and working in Morocco. They have then been built upon these through their own relations to the contexts and the varied ideas they inspire in their own practices, creating a triangular discourse of relations and new connections.
Al Mahal attempts to reconcile the multiple entanglements of all these relations: it does so through the commissions, the new contexts they take on in situ, the written commissions and the collective dialogue produced between all of these aspects. The project celebrates Moroccan history and existence in the UK whilst also creating and sustaining new points of connection between the Moroccan diaspora and its home.
Al Mahal attempts to reconcile the multiple entanglements of all these relations: it does so through the commissions, the new contexts they take on in situ, the written commissions and the collective dialogue produced between all of these aspects. The project celebrates Moroccan history and existence in the UK whilst also creating and sustaining new points of connection between the Moroccan diaspora and its home.
The artist's works traverse realms such as cultural transmission, dislocation, memory, exile and spatial dislocation. They raise questions around the manufacturing of place and identity, belonging and home. They work with image, iconography and archives as well as with listening and vernacular forms of knowledge that are able to re-narrate histories
Placing this project directly within the social spaces that the UK’s Moroccan community frequent means the questioning and visiblising of our minoritarian history is directly in contact with those it desires to speak alongside.
Graphic design By Atonale
![]()
Placing this project directly within the social spaces that the UK’s Moroccan community frequent means the questioning and visiblising of our minoritarian history is directly in contact with those it desires to speak alongside.
Graphic design By Atonale
