

M’barek Bouhchichi Moroccan , b. 1975
M’barek Bouhchichi’s Terra series continues his exploration of forgotten correspondences between southeastern Morocco, where he is from, and northeastern Mali. Produced in collaboration with a community of women working to preserve ancestral weaving techniques, the wool fabric is dyed using henna paste, carefully building up chromatic intensity through successive applications. Suggesting both architecture and landscape—especially given henna’s characteristic reddish-brown colour, which evokes clay-rich soil—the minimal compositions are inspired by patterns and motifs shared between the two regions, commemorating the circulation of culture and knowledge across an area spanning the majestic Atlas Mountains and the arid western Sahara that has been inhabited and traversed by the Amazigh for millennia. Bouhchichi displays these dyed fabrics pulled taut over wooden stretchers like canvas, asserting their status as abstract painting.