The eac. is partnering with the Centre de la photographie de Mougins to present an exhibition highlighting the experimental aspect of the photographic medium. Each year, the Centre de la photographie de Mougins invites one or more photographers for a six-week residency to question the identity of the Alpes Maritimes, a region that is constantly evolving and redefined. These research and experimental residencies benefit from the support of the DRAC PACA. It is within this framework that the work of Mustapha Azeroual, artist in residence during the year 2024, is presented here.
Born in Tours in 1979, Mustapha Azeroual is a self-taught photographer of French-Moroccan origin who lives and works between Tours and Marrakech. For several years, he has been developing a conceptual and experimental approach to photography, questioning its tools, processes, and media. His work is based on a rigorous exploration of the physicochemical, optical, and electronic dimensions of the medium, thus rejecting the dualism between photography as a simple capture of reality and its interpretation as a pure imaginary construct.
The exhibition presents a series of experiments on the perception and capture of light, engaging the visitor in a sensory reflection beyond the visible. Mustapha Azeroual designs devices that, while exploiting contemporary technological advances, seek to intensify the experience of light and color. Since 2014, he has explored the relationship between light and vision, deconstructing the photographic act through various experiments: from recording light modulations with flash, to holographic projection, to the design of immersive installations.
His works challenge our sensory perception, calling upon sight, hearing, and sometimes even smell. With The Green Ray, he reduces the photographic landscape to its simplest expression: a horizon line and large areas of color, thus transforming the image into pure abstraction. Meanwhile, the video installation Par une nuit sans lune retranscribes a night on Sainte-Marguerite Island. The work Sillage, meanwhile, explores light in its olfactory dimension, offering a unique multisensory approach.
Mustapha Azeroual’s installations are conceived as immersive experiences where the image is no longer simply an object to be viewed, but an invitation to perceive differently. Between science and poetry, memory and experience, his works create shifting and moving situations that resonate with the viewer’s memories and perceptions. By pushing the boundaries of the photographic medium, he continually redefines the contours of what it means to write with light.
Curated by: Yasmine Chemali – Director, François Cheval – Artistic Director – Centre de la photographie de Mougins and Fabienne Grasser-Fulchéri, Director of the EAC.
In partnership with the Centre de la photographie de Mougins, City of Mougins
Mustapha Azeroual: Sillage
March 8 – August 31, 2025
Publication Mustapha Azeroual, Sillage, published on the occasion of the artist’s research and experimental residency at the Mougins Photography Center and the eponymous exhibition at the Espace de l’Art Concret – a contemporary art center of national interest.
Publisher: Process Éditions
Published: March 2025
22 × 27 cm — 44 pages
Bilingual French / English
ISBN: 978-2-9587996-8-7
