Hundreds of independent art and museums spaces were forced to close due to the Corona-Crisis. In this series we are celebrating the fantastic artistic events that are right now sitting behind closed doors. Take a look at the photographs by Leila Alaoui installed at ifa gallery Stuttgart.
installation views © die arge lola / Kai Loges und Andreas Langen Shown works from the series: „ Les Marocains“, „Crossings“ „No Pasara“, „L’île du Diable“ by Leila Alaoui © Fondation Leila Alaoui; Galeria Continua, San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Habana
The shiny fabric of a coat, the countless woollen threads of a piece of headwear, a candid gaze – the portraits of the Moroccan-French photographer Leila Alaoui (1982-2016) put people immediately and directly into the picture. This artist retrospective shows four groups of works done between 2008 and 2015.
On her journey through Morocco between 2010 and 2014, which took her from Essaouira in the southwest to Tangier in the north, Alaoui photographed Moroccans in a mobile studio – in the bustling capital of Marrakech and in the small, secluded settlements of the Atlas Mountains. Her series Les Marocains gave a face to a whole region. In videos and photographs, Alaoui addressed issues of cultural diversity, migration and identity. In the series No Pasara from 2008, she turned her camera on people living in marginal social areas. The result was a photo reportage from a perspective that hardly ever appears in media presentations: the lives of refugees hoping for passage to Europe in the port cities of Nador and Tangier.
Alaoui dedicated herself to the presence of the individual body in the format-filling faces of men and women in the series Crossings. It was shown as a video work in 2015 at the ifa Gallery in Stuttgart on the occasion of the exhibition Carrefour / Meeting Point – The Marrakech Biennale and Beyond.
Her fragmentary video L’île du Diable treats the 1960s generation of immigrants in France, who gave to an automobile factory near Paris where they worked until its closure the suggestive nickname ‘Devil’s Island’.
Leila Alaoui died in 2016 from wounds sustained in a terrorist attack in Ouagadougou. She had travelled to Burkina Faso on behalf of Amnesty International to shoot a photo spread on women’s rights for the My Body, My Rights campaign. The extremist group al-Mourabitoun declared responsibility for the attack.
installation views © die arge lola / Kai Loges und Andreas Langen Shown works from the series: „ Les Marocains“, „Crossings“ „No Pasara“, „L’île du Diable“ by Leila Alaoui © Fondation Leila Alaoui; Galeria Continua, San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Habana
installation views © die arge lola / Kai Loges und Andreas Langen Shown works from the series: „ Les Marocains“, „Crossings“ „No Pasara“, „L’île du Diable“ by Leila Alaoui © Fondation Leila Alaoui; Galeria Continua, San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Habana
installation views © die arge lola / Kai Loges und Andreas Langen Shown works from the series: „ Les Marocains“, „Crossings“ „No Pasara“, „L’île du Diable“ by Leila Alaoui © Fondation Leila Alaoui; Galeria Continua, San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Habana
installation views © die arge lola / Kai Loges und Andreas Langen Shown works from the series: „ Les Marocains“, „Crossings“ „No Pasara“, „L’île du Diable“ by Leila Alaoui © Fondation Leila Alaoui; Galeria Continua, San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Habana
installation views © die arge lola / Kai Loges und Andreas Langen Shown works from the series: „ Les Marocains“, „Crossings“ „No Pasara“, „L’île du Diable“ by Leila Alaoui © Fondation Leila Alaoui; Galeria Continua, San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Habana
installation views © die arge lola / Kai Loges und Andreas Langen Shown works from the series: „ Les Marocains“, „Crossings“ „No Pasara“, „L’île du Diable“ by Leila Alaoui © Fondation Leila Alaoui; Galeria Continua, San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Habana
installation views © die arge lola / Kai Loges und Andreas Langen Shown works from the series: „ Les Marocains“, „Crossings“ „No Pasara“, „L’île du Diable“ by Leila Alaoui © Fondation Leila Alaoui; Galeria Continua, San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Habana
installation views © die arge lola / Kai Loges und Andreas Langen Shown works from the series: „ Les Marocains“, „Crossings“ „No Pasara“, „L’île du Diable“ by Leila Alaoui © Fondation Leila Alaoui; Galeria Continua, San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Habana
installation views © die arge lola / Kai Loges und Andreas Langen Shown works from the series: „ Les Marocains“, „Crossings“ „No Pasara“, „L’île du Diable“ by Leila Alaoui © Fondation Leila Alaoui; Galeria Continua, San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Habana
installation views © die arge lola / Kai Loges und Andreas Langen Shown works from the series: „ Les Marocains“, „Crossings“ „No Pasara“, „L’île du Diable“ by Leila Alaoui © Fondation Leila Alaoui; Galeria Continua, San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Habana
installation views © die arge lola / Kai Loges und Andreas Langen Shown works from the series: „ Les Marocains“, „Crossings“ „No Pasara“, „L’île du Diable“ by Leila Alaoui © Fondation Leila Alaoui; Galeria Continua, San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Habana
installation views © die arge lola / Kai Loges und Andreas Langen Shown works from the series: „ Les Marocains“, „Crossings“ „No Pasara“, „L’île du Diable“ by Leila Alaoui © Fondation Leila Alaoui; Galeria Continua, San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Habana
installation views © die arge lola / Kai Loges und Andreas Langen Shown works from the series: „ Les Marocains“, „Crossings“ „No Pasara“, „L’île du Diable“ by Leila Alaoui © Fondation Leila Alaoui; Galeria Continua, San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Habana
More Editorial
![(clockwise) Manyaku Mashilo, Passage to Prayer (detail), 2023. Credit: Hayden Phipps & Southern Guild Archives. Courtesy of the artist; Tatenda Chidora, Self isolation II, 2021. Ilford Gold fibre Pearl 290gsm, 102cm x 132cm. Courtesy of the artist; Anaïs Cheleux, Mas Maten, Guadeloupe, shot on digital camera, 2016. Courtesy of the artist; Glicéria Tupinambá, Manto tupinambá [Tupinambá Mantle], 2023. Courtesy of the artist. Foto: Glicéria Tupinambá; Elizabeth Catlett, African American, 2009, MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST, © Elizabeth Catlett Family Trust / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023, photo: Axel Schneider.](https://contemporaryand.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Bildschirmfoto-2024-12-19-um-21.08.13-320x200.png)
![(clockwise) Manyaku Mashilo, Passage to Prayer (detail), 2023. Credit: Hayden Phipps & Southern Guild Archives. Courtesy of the artist; Tatenda Chidora, Self isolation II, 2021. Ilford Gold fibre Pearl 290gsm, 102cm x 132cm. Courtesy of the artist; Anaïs Cheleux, Mas Maten, Guadeloupe, shot on digital camera, 2016. Courtesy of the artist; Glicéria Tupinambá, Manto tupinambá [Tupinambá Mantle], 2023. Courtesy of the artist. Foto: Glicéria Tupinambá; Elizabeth Catlett, African American, 2009, MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST, © Elizabeth Catlett Family Trust / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023, photo: Axel Schneider.](https://contemporaryand.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Bildschirmfoto-2024-12-19-um-21.08.13-480x300.png)
