Exhibition Focus – MO BAALA AT THE MCC

 

Mo Baala’s work fuses his background as an artisan with fine art. And his first major solo exhibition in Marrakech is a must-see.

 

Few artists create the kind of stir that Mo Baala did when his work was exhibited at the Marrakech Biennale in 2016. Here was an artist with a truly unique story – and gift.

 

Because Baala hadn’t been trained at art school. Nor had he grown up in a city teeming with galleries. In fact, he was entirely self-taught and had grown up far away from the art scene. Born in Casablanca, Baala had moved to the market town of Taroudant in southwestern Morocco as a child to be raised by his grandmother. From a young age, he’d trained as a leather artisan.

 

(c) portrait of Mo Baala by Youssef Aït Bouskri

But Baala’s intellect, and curiosity, drove him to explore the world that lay far beyond his small home town. Sitting in internet cafes, he discovered philosophy, music, cinema and art. And free from the rigidity of formal education, he started experimenting with creating art in his early twenties – first drawings and later leather and textiles, painting, photography, graffiti and street art.

 

He first exhibited his work in Taroudant in 2012 but it was his collaboration with the French photographer Marc Belli for his next exhibition for years later that got him noticed by art critics. Their work was shown as part of the Marrakech Biennale and later the influential Diptyk Magazine would go on to ask: ‘Is Mo Balaa the new Basquiat?

 

Eight years on, Balaa has exhibited across Morocco and Europe. His work is also in museums  as well as private collections everywhere from Switzerland, France and Spain to the United States.

 

But however successful he has become, Baala remains true to his artisanal roots as well as the fine craftsmanship of Morocco. His new exhibition at MCC Gallery in Sidi Ghanem is called ‘Under the Silver Tree’ and features painting and collage, as well as huge canvases covered in intricate leather cuts of animals, people and symbols – large works of storytelling, colour and craft.

 

 

‘This exhibition represents an emotion, an embrace, a breath of hope for every child in this world,’ writes Baala. ‘The child living on the street, deprived of the meal that would appease their hunger, the child crossing the desert, the child crossing the sea, the child in a home, in a shelter, in a transit center, the one suffering from wars or working in a workshop, this exhibition is theirs.’

 

We saw the exhibition recently and were captivated. Baala’s work is dense, evocative, colour-soaked and unique. Under the Silver Tree is on until February and it’s our must-see of the season. 

 

(c) photograph by Youssef Aït Bouskri