Sara Ouhaddou is the second guest artist featured in the Fondation Thalie’s summer programme in Arles. The Franco-Moroccan artist presents, for the first time, a set of photographs that explore the daily life of the artisans with whom she has collaborated with for nearly ten years: the fruit of various projects carried out in Morocco, Tunisia and Japan. The starting point for this ensemble is the relationship the artist maintains with members of her family—originally from Meknes—who are farmers and artisans.
Her creative processes draw on the collective intelligence of rural areas, from the Atlas Mountains to the villages of the Rif, from the medinas of Fez to Marrakech. Her approach deconstructs motifs, innovates by imagining new tools around the works with the artisans’ involvement. The title of the exhibition, “Take a Seat, Have Some Tea” [in Arabic: Gaalsi, T’charbi kass d’atay], is an invitation to enter intimately into these communities. Between photography and sculptural works, a certain long-form poetry becomes clear; a way of seeing the world against the injunctions of globalisation, thanks to an ecology of reuse that the artist includes within a resolutely contemporary plastic approach.
Sara Ouhaddou
A graduate of the École Olivier De Serres Paris, Sara Ouhaddou’s work has been the subject of several international including Hirafen, Ateliers C3T, Tunisie (2023), Moroccan Trilogy, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid (2021) ; Global resistance, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2020) ; Manifesta Biennale, Marseille (2020) ; Our World is burning, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2020), Marrakech Biennale, Maroc, (2016). In 2024, she took part in the Gherdeina Biennial and presented a solo exhibition at the MACAAL Museum of Contemporary Art in Marrakech and at the ifa-Galerie Berlin. She has also participated in programmes and residencies including Villa Albertine (2023), IASPIS Stockholm (2021/2022), Art Explora x La Cité Internationale des Arts (2021) and La Cité Internationale des Arts x Daniel et Nina Carasso (2020/2021).
Curators: Nathalie Guiot and Ludovic Delalande
Practical information
Opening Saturday 29 June, 2024.
Exhibition from 30 June to 28 September, 2024
Open from Wednesday to Saturday, from 12am to 6pm.
Admission: 5 Euros | Free admission from July 1 to 7 (Rencontres d’Arles) and from August 26 to September 1, 2024 (Festival Agir pour le Vivant)
This exhibition takes part in the school programme Une Rentrée en Images initiated by Les Rencontres de la photographie d’Arles.
