Marrakech has just opened three exhibitions dedicated to Moroccan photographer Daoud Aoulad-Syad, who, for many years, photographed his country and its habitants. Marrakech is both the birthplace of Moroccan photography, through the Sultan Abdel Aziz’s experimental production at the beginning of last century, and the birthplace of Daoud Aoulad-Syad, who uses it as a subject of predilection. In these exhibitions we find a group of previously unseen black and white portraits of folk groups from the entire Moroccan kingdom. From Tanger to Dakhla, from Essaouira to Zagora, Beni Mellal, or even Boujaad, Chaouen and Oujda… Coming from all the kingdom’s regions, every year for almost sixty years, these artists, musicians, singers, and dancers struck a pose for Daoud Aoulad-Syad. There is, notably, an ensemble of previously unseen color photographs made by Daoud Aoulad-Syad. A kind of praise of shadow, here Daoud plays with the most precious thing nature can offer a photographer – light – while he roamed around these territories, mainly finding scenes of rural life, or village parties and weekly markets. Here we find his subjects of predilection: the foreign, the margins, ancestral Morocco, the country, and the grand south. It is a beautiful tribute to this beautiful country by a photographer who knows it well.
Exhibitions :
Ethnofolk
February 23 through April 28, 2018
As part of the contemporary art fair 1—54
Galerie 127, Marrakech
Le Maroc, d’ombre et lumière
February 21 through April 28, 2018
Dar Moulay Ali, 1 Rue Ibn Khaldoun Marrakech
Near the Koutoubia
Maroc 1980—2000
February 21 through April 28, 2018
Bank Al Maghrib, Place Jemaa El Fna
