b. 1975, Akka, Morocco / Lives and works in Tahanaout, Morocco.
M’barek Bouhchichi’s practice is largely rooted in a socio-political agenda that centres race and indigenous issues in Moroccan society and history. Through his installation, sculptures and paintings, he conjures up the aesthetic to reify tangible testimonies of the historicity of a people, by giving spaces to modes of expression, knowledge and activities that are inherent to local craftsmen. Often welding together matter and poetry, his timeless yet referential pieces reconstruct a visual archive that reiterates Berber-Moroccan identity in collective consciousness. Through an attempt to self-define and to self-affirm, his work segues from an individual experience towards a larger framework that destabilizes normative and monolithic definitions of blackness in social and cultural discourses and systems.
Bouhchichi graduated from the Centre Pédagogique Régional, Rabat, Morocco.
The works of M’barek Bouhchichi have recently been exhibited at biennials at international institutions, including Biennal Sao Paolo, Brasil / Dak’art, 13th edition of the Biennial of Contemporary African Art, Dakar, Senegal / Islamic Arts Biennale. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia / Savvy Contemporary, Berlin, Germany / The Centre Pompidou, Paris / Mu.ZEE, Ostend, Belgium / MUCEM, Marseille, France / Institut du monde Arabe, Paris, France / The Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL), Marrakech, Morocco / Palacio Cadaval, Evora, Portugal / The Foundation for the Development of African Contemporary Culture (FDCCA), Casablanca, Morocco.
Bouchichi has also been featured in the book African Art Now by Osei Bonsou, co-published by the Tate publishing and Ilex.
His work is included in prestigious collections, including The Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL), Marrakech, Morocco / Friends of the Arts in North Africa Foundation, California, USA / La Fondation CDG, Rabat, Morocco / The Centre Pompidou, Paris, France / Fondation H, Antananarivo, Madagascar / Frac Corsica Collection, Corsica, France / Musée d'art contemporain Helga de Alvear, Madrid, Spain / Fundación CALOSA, Mexico.