[EXHIBITION] ETAT D’URGENCE D’INSTANTS POETIQUES

In the midst of a global pandemic, Bouchra Salih revives the sense of art in us and comes back with the third edition of (EIUP) ‘‘Etat d’urgence d’instants poétiques ’’ an exhibition that gathers the art work of 8 contemporary artists both outdoors at the botanical testing gardens of Rabat and indoors at the Cube Independent Art Room from the 7th of November to the 7th of December 2020.

Going back to nature be it the one outside or the one within us was the main theme of the exhibition, Khadija El Abyad, Othmane Bengebara, Brynony Dunne, Mohamed El Baz, Jumana Monna, Abdeljalil Saouli, Loutfi Souidi and Abdessamad Elmountassir have all contributed into taking the visitors on a trip through all their senses, be it with Art to see, to touch, to hear or even to taste, this art exhibition is everything that Art lovers might’ve needed after a long time of lockdown.

The sky, something that we all live under no matter what our differences are, the sky is what we lifted our eyes to everytime we got fed up of the lockdown, also the sky that Othmane Bengebara created to say loud and clear ‘‘Now we all live under the same roof’’ an installation of 81 mirror tiles of 40cmx40cm, that reflects the sky to represent that wherever we are, we are still all looking up at the same roof.

‘‘DOUIRA’’ of Abd El Jalil Saouli expressed the longing he feels to his village Moulay Bouchta and the difficulty that villagers usually experience when they move into big cities by hanging what looks like house roofs on a tree, relating it to the bees who travel  constantly for food and survival, to compliment that there was also a blank canva on which visitors can draw using raw honey either by hand or using branches coming all the way from the same village. Also a piece of wood that to many visitors looked like a heart, painted with organic paint that is originally used on houses of the villagers.

For a moment of relaxation and maybe meditation to the ones who wish, Mohamed El Baz has created in collaboration with many artists,‘‘The forest 2’’ a sound installation of 70min 02s edited by Abdellah M. HASSAK, on which there is a variety of poems, lullabies, songs and short stories to sooth the mind and draw a smile on the faces of the visitors. 

‘‘It has been indeed really difficult to even make this possible during a global pandemic and also to adapt the art works to the small indoors space at the Cube Independent Art room, specially that they were all made to take us back to nature but it would have been really unfortunate to limit the exhibition to the days we could book at the botanical testing garden, we did our best to make our visitors still feel the intentions of each art work even inside the cement roofs to extend the sharing of these precious moments’’

                                              – Bouchra Salhi, Founder of EIUP.