En conversation avec ... Hicham Benohoud

3 - 10 June 2020

In retrospective of the third edition of the Contemporary Art Fair 1:54 held in Marrakech from 20th to 23rd February 2020, Loft Art Gallery sat down with the artist and photographer Hicham Benohoud to talk about the exhibition Moroccan Landscapes in which he exhibited alongside the artist Amina Agueznay.

This was an opportunity for us to evoke the rapport he develops with the people, the identity and the Moroccan culture

 

  • LAG- Your artistic practices and your works constantly refer to the Moroccan way of life, its culture, environment and its individuals. How is your country an everlasting source of inspiration for you?

     

    HB: As an artist, I am sensitive to my environment. My founding series is La salle de Classe (The Classroom). Unconsciously, since I became an art teacher, the first "artistic reflex" was to photograph my students, whom I saw every day for thirteen years. I photographed and photographed them again and again obsessively throughout this period. The day I left teaching, I felt like an “orphan” without my students. They were the only "subjects" I took pictures of. As I no longer had these "models", I turned my camera on myself and made my second series of thirty self-portraits named Version Soft (Soft version). These photos represented me alone, head and shoulder portraits. The majority of my following artistic projects refer to Morocco or my hometown Marrakech, such as Landscaping, The Hole or Acrobaties (Acrobatics).

    When you are born in a country like Morocco, you can't help speaking, observing and photographing it.

     

     

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  • LAG- How did The Landscaping series come up to you?

     

    HB: The diversity of Moroccan landscapes is undeniable. It goes from snowy mountains to desert sand dunes. For my part, I was more sensitive to the landscapes of the south, between the mountains and the desert. An arid landscape, hybrid, without identity. A no man's land. There are mountains, rocks and stones. Lots of minerals and a few or no vegetation. A lifeless landscape, or almost lifeless.

    There is not just one but many Moroccos. It can be represented by different scenes. For this series, the landscape was the main subject.

     

     LAG- The construction is present in each of your works and the staging of your photographs often involves professionals working in the construction sector. What does this framework represent for you?

     

    HB: In these uninhabited desert landscapes, I tried to build temporary walls, walls that are destroyed as soon as they are built. Walls without foundations, with a fragile balance. I also tiled the desert. Everything is temporarily laid. Nothing is set indefinitely. It's about structuring and architecturing a harsh, indomitable landscape. This landscape is a metaphor for a society with multiple building sites. The involvement of professionals builders (masons, painters, tilers, etc.) was necessary for technical but also symbolic reasons. It was not necessary to tinker but to really build, according to the rules of art for the needs of the shooting. The destruction of my artistic interventions inevitably comes right afterwards.

     

    LAG- We were talking about the place of architecture in your works. This implies the intervention of various professions. What place do you give to collective work?

     

    HB: It's increasingly difficult, as an artist, to work alone. The most important thing is the project, the idea. In order to develop them, we have to work side by side with people even though it is not the artist’s way.  . As soon as I take a photograph, I submit it to a professional photographer who in some cases does the lamination before entrusting the photo to a framer. The artist, nowadays, is not trained in all techniques. For the Landscaping series, I have used several trades. Each worker or craftsman has a specific task to carry out. In my approach, craftsmen are not given free rein. I refuse their suggestions even though they may be interesting. I make the decision on everything. And it is a choice. When I come across a problem,  I rely on them to  bring the technical but not the artistic (or aesthetic) solutions. Besides, they find it hard to understand how I can destroy their wall in a few minutes, knowing that it took them two or three days to build it in extreme weather conditions. What’s important for me is that they were given work and were paid for it. Unlike other artists who actually collaborate with other people, my approach is deliberately radical. It's the way I look at society, at the world.

     

    LAG- Now that digital technology is invading our daily lives and we are constantly on computers and mobile phones, you have chosen to give priority to manual work for the creation of your works. Your photos seem photoshopped, whereas on the contrary, it is the manual and human interventions that are at the center of the creative process. What dimension do you give to manual gestures and what place does this collaboration occupy in your artistic practice?

     

    HB: As I mentioned previously, there is no space for collaboration as such, meaning the influence of others’s sensitivity and sight on my work. The frame is set from the beginning. People are paid for the work they are going to do. Already in The Classroom, where my students volunteered, every once in a while someone would propose a vision that I hadn't asked for, and that I declined politely.

    However, skilled manual actions remain for me indispensable to creation. I build by myself and I only call on others when I am technically limited or to help me with logistics.

    As a child I loved to tear, glue, fold, destroy, crumple, etc.. And that's what I continue to do, on another scale, doing a large part of my creation. I need my hands to feel the world better.

  • LAG- My first question was about the Moroccan theme as a source of inspiration. Is it what can be shown and said in your works related to a more universal narrative? Is it a wish to do so?

     

    HB: When I think about the production of a new work, I certainly talk about my country, but I don't try to relate to a universal narrative or discourse. I'm dealing with a local, even personal issue, and History decides the scope of the project. At the same time, what affects me as a Moroccan can affect people in other countries. The Classroom deals with the theme of education. Who is not sensitive to this theme whether you are Moroccan, French or Chinese? The question of power is inherent to the totality of my work. Who is not sensitive to this issue, whether it is the power of money, politics, feelings, etc.? However, it is not because we are dealing with a universal subject that we can interest everyone. It is the artist's viewpoint and sensitivity to a question or a detail that can make the difference.

     

     

    LAG- Do you think that the art has a role to play in changing ideas and mentalities ? In what way do you think your work brings a new perspective on the Moroccan society?

    HB: I think that art on its own does not have the capacity to change mentalities. It would take much more than that. Art offers another vision of the world, seeing it through another prism. It opens our eyes to certain aspects of life, brings a critical view of society, and that's already a lot. We're just starting to have museums and galleries of contemporary art in Morocco. Art education must start in childhood. The context must also evolve so that it is conducive to the development of art. It is a gigantic undertaking and requires a courageous policy.

     

  • LAG- My first question was about the Moroccan theme as a source of inspiration. Is what is said and shown...

    LAG- My first question was about the Moroccan theme as a source of inspiration. Is what is said and shown in your works related to a more universal narrative? Is it a wish to do so?

     

    HB: When I think about the production of a new work, I certainly talk about my country, but I don't try to relate to a universal narrative or discourse. I'm dealing with a local, even personal issue, and History decides the scope of the project. At the same time, what affects me as a Moroccan can affect people in other countries. The classroom deals with the theme of education. Who is not sensitive to this theme whether you are Moroccan, French or Chinese? The question of power is inherent to the totality of my work. Who is not sensitive to this issue, whether it is the power of money, politics, feelings, etc.? However, it is not because we are dealing with a universal subject that we can interest everyone. It is the artist's viewpoint and sensitivity to a question or a detail that can make the difference.