New Immersive Art At El Fenn

 

El Fenn’s heart has always been powered by art. And over the past 20 years, we’ve built up a collection of work by artists from all over the world. You could find anything from work by David Shrigley to Hassan Hajjaj hanging in your bedroom when you check in. 

 

But we always want to find new ways through which people can experience art and our latest exhibition in partnership with Galerie Siniya28 offers just that.

 

Renowned multidisciplinary Moroccan artist Rita Alaoui has just created a series of large-scale murals in our main entrance corridors to backdrop The Inner Garden – seven paintings that celebrate the power of nature – and the result is a truly immersive experience.    

 

 

‘I work on large format paintings in my studio and knew murals would give me even more freedom,’ says Rita. ‘The idea was for each canvas to be distinct but also interdependent in the context of the murals.’

 

Rita spent five days working on El Fenn’s internal walls to create two murals in our reception area, as well as two larger-scale designs – one in the main entrance, which leads to our palm-filled central courtyard, and a second in the corridor beyond it.

 

‘It’s as if people are moving between real and imagined gardens,’ she says.

 

The stunning results will be on show for the next six months and for us, it’s the perfect way to kick off 2026. Because while we’ve long believed in the power of art, scientific researchers are starting to prove that it can be restorative to the body, as well as the mind. A visit to a gallery for instance can produce the same drop in cortisol levels as a three-hour forest walk. Cultural wellbeing, it seems, is just as important as a visit to the gym. 

 

 

 

 

ABOUT RITA ALAOUI

Born in Rabat and raised in Casablanca, Rita moved to Paris and then New York to study at the Parsons School of Design. But despite living in huge cities, nature remains a central theme in her work thanks to her childhood growing up by the sea and the significant time she spent in natural environments from an early age, through travels across Morocco and later with her children.

 

‘We spent all our free time in nature – either on the coast at Casablanca or in the countryside,’ says Rita. ‘So I always had a strong relationship with the outdoors and had this fantasy of being in wilder environments when I moved to large cities so I painted what I’d like to be surrounded with.

 

‘Another inspiration was my great grandmother who was very wise about medicinal plants and used them to heal me as a child. I’ve learned a lot since about the power of plants and how ancient cultures used them. And of course nature is magical in its capacity to regenerate.

 

‘My art is a combination of all these interests, memories and fantasies.’

 

 

THE INNER GARDEN – RITA ALAOUI AT EL FENN

The Inner Garden builds on two previous series of Rita’s work: 2023’s Silent Garden and last year’s Water Under My Skin – the first depicting terrestrial gardens, and the second aquatic landscapes. Now Inner Garden interweaves the two worlds in a series of stunning paintings featuring plants and flora, as well as the repeated theme of an empty chair sitting amid the lush natural landscapes. 

 

‘During Covid, I was working from a studio with a garden, surrounded by trees, plants, and outdoor chairs,’ says Rita. ‘Because we couldn’t go out, I had time to paint what I saw directly around me, including the chairs, but always transforming them through memory and imagination, and sometimes adding elements.

 

‘The empty chair also has a very important place in art history and Van Gogh used them a lot for instance. They are quietly suggesting presence through absence, and, in the context of my work, it’s about the trace of humans in the natural world.

 

‘The vegetation is so powerful, it’s almost overwhelming and the empty chair is set against it. Maybe it represents contemplation or the solitude of the artist, or even the vanishing of humans, I don’t know myself and I never want to prescribe how people interpret my art.’

 

 

 

 

INSTALLATION AT EL FENN

To create the murals, Rita stepped beyond the familiar realm of studio painting to work on scaffolding and ladders.

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‘The red walls of El Fenn are so vibrant and part of the hotel’s visual identity so I wanted to use them,’ says Rita. ‘But while I did some detailed sketches in advance, the end work is not an exact replica because there’s so much you cannot plan and I let myself improvise with the space, the weather, my state of mind and energy. 

 

‘It was challenging but also very interesting to work in such a different context. I had to use brushes fixed to the end of very long sticks for instance to reach the highest parts of the walls and accept that my gesture was not going to be as precise as I wanted it to be but also let myself relax with that. 

 

‘Working at height was like choreography too as I had to find ways for anything from putting the paint on the brush to moving in a different way. Plus, I usually work alone in a studio but El Fenn is a living, working place so there were always people passing through and it was fascinating to see how they responded to the art as it was created. 

 

‘So while the outcome is similar, it was also a completely different – and very interesting – process.’

 

 

In addition to painting, Rita works on drawing, photography, video-performance, installation and artist’s books. Her work has been exhibited in the UK, France, Morocco, Spain, the Emirates and beyond. It’s also in the homes of collectors worldwide and two paintings from her Autumn series are part of the permanent El Fenn collection.

 

We’re delighted Rita chose El Fenn to showcase her new work in such an exciting way. And we can’t wait for you to see it. 

 

:: The Inner Garden will be on show at El Fenn until the end of June. A new series of Bloom paintings by Rita that celebrate nature regeneration will also be exhibited in February.