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First solo exhibition showcasing a lifetime of thinking and work by the Tétouan-based artist. 5 June - 30 Sept. 2015, L’appartement 22, Rabat. Curator: Natasha Ginwala
Jun 2015Mind Moves Matter is the first exhibition showcasing a lifetime of thinking and work by the Tétouan-based artist Mohamed Larbi Rahhali. By animating forms of the everyday and through an insightful understanding of time that is at once deeply personal yet also extending to the planetary scale, Larbi reveals the practice of life as a constant experiment in art making. The time-space of L’appartement 22 will capture the atmosphere of the artist’s home-studio, resembling a mini museum consisting of absurdist scenography, imaginative re-crafting of found objects and apparatus conceived to evoke human-earth relations today.
Larbi holds multiple professional backgrounds as a visual artist, having learnt several artisanal trades practiced in the Tétouan medina, building elaborate film sets and working at the Fine Arts Institute as a technician in previous years. Furthermore, his intrinsic relationship with the sea as a fisherman is crucial to understanding the artistic practice as a whole.
In a Gesamtkunstwerk bringing together conceptual, scientific and artisanal vocabulary, we witness the minute interiors of a matchbox, the motions upon a self-made sundial and the intricate expanse of fishnets that perform as choreographic devices between order and chaos, the sea horizon and interstellar space, personal memory and a collective psyche.
Mohamed Larbi Rahhali lives and works in Tétouan. His recent group exhibitions include Here and Elsewhere, New Museum, New York (2014), Before our eyes, MACBA, Barcelona (2015) Sous nos yeux. Part 2, Kunsthalle, centre d'art contemporain Mulhouse (2013), Sentences on the banks and other activities, Darat al Funun, Amman (2010). He took part at the workshop 3RS Maroc led by Seamus Farrell and organized by L'appartement 22 between Fes, Rabat and Tétouan (2007). Mind Moves Matter at L'appartement 22 is the first comprehensive solo exhibition of the artist.
Natasha Ginwala is an independent curator, researcher, and writer. She is curatorial advisor and public programmes curator, 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (2014). Her recent work also includes Corruption: Everybody Knows... for e-flux journal's special issue, Supercommunity, at 56th Venice Biennale, the multi-part curatorial project Landings (with Vivian Ziherl), 2013-ongoing, as well as The Museum of Rhythm at Taipei Biennial 2012 (with Anselm Franke). Ginwala regularly contributes to artist publications and periodicals.
L'appartement 22 was founded in 2002 by Abdellah Karroum in Rabat following a series of gatherings, discussions and expeditions. L'appartement 22 has played a fundamental role in the transformation of the art scene in Morocco for the last decade, working with a generation of artists addressing major issues of gender and freedom of expression in a region where politics, religion and economy are often exclusive items of traditional and post-independence power.
Curated by Natasha Ginwala
member of the curatorial delegation
Mohamed Larbi Rahhali
Mind Moves Matter
5 June - 30 September 2015