Fort Rottembourg, located in the heart of Rabat, embodies a true crossroads between history and modernity, hosting the art of photography in a unique setting. Anchored in the collective imagination of its neighborhood, this emblematic building faces the ocean, offering a spectacular view that enriches the visitor experience.
A place of welcome and meeting, the fort encourages visits to museums and is distinguished by its ability to receive the public in the best conditions, offering a space that is both warm and conducive to contemplation. It plays an essential role in promoting the richness of the photographic scene, both Moroccan and international, by becoming a true cultural hub. Through its exhibitions, Fort Rottembourg actively participates in highlighting emerging talents and iconic figures in photography, while helping to promote visual art beyond borders.
The exhibition l’Odyssée contemporaine de Reza finds its genesis in a vision and an invitation.
The vision was that of Rachel Deghati, author, editorial director, exhibition curator, and life companion and projects of photographer Reza to exhibit the latter’s work in Morocco.
The invitation came from Mehdi Qotbi, painter and president of the Foundation of National Museums, who suggested that Reza invest in the National Museum of Photography in Rabat.
This is how this major exhibition was born, inaugurated on December 10 in the beautiful architectural setting of Fort Rottembourg, the scene of a major photographic installation designed outdoors by Reza, and curated by Rachel Deghati and Pierre Bongiovanni. Outside the museum, the visual tone is set. From a distance, we can contemplate the flight of a woman towards the ocean in very large format. Totems call passers-by to discover twenty-five photographs, an introduction to the exhibition, with free access.
On the ramparts, on the museum side, a contemporary Odyssey invites the visitor through images to explore a thousand worlds and a single humanity through a mosaic of nearly 400 portraits, like a face to face with beauty and diversity.
The seven rooms inside the Museum are a visual and poetic invitation to explore the tale of the Orient, the conference of birds by the 13th century Persian poet, Attar. Seven rooms for the seven valleys of story, the valley of knowledge, the valley of quest, the valley of love, the valley of beauty, the valley of detachment, the valley of nothingness and the valley of the universe. In these rooms, documentary photographs of the conflicts covered by Reza and more meditative photographs of this artist and poet of the moment, are intertwined and form, with great coherence, a journey. The words in this odyssey have an essential place, they form a text cartel for each of the images, thus offering a complementary reading of the photography.
In the twists and turns of the museum corridors, women’s voices whisper in Arabic, French and English, poems about travel and love. They tell us how central the place of women is in the photographer’s work.
