Culture Vultures Fez

Architectural Responses – Eric Saline and M’barek Bouhchichi

Opens Saturday 17th April at 6:30 p.m.

Exhibition continues until the 12th of May

ALIF Riad,

6, Derb Drissi, Batha, Fez medina

The well-known architecture and decorative strategies employed in traditional Moroccan Riads would hardly be called a neutral starting-point for 2 artists to respond to. However, when American Artist Eric Saline and Moroccan Artist M’barek Bouhchichi were presented with the opportunity to create a sculptural-installation using the space of the American Language Center/ ALIF’s Riad in Batha, Fez, they eagerly accepted. For these two like-minded contemporary artists from opposite sides of the globe, it can be said that the space of a Riad is like a forgotten work of art, a pre-mixed palette just begging to have life breathed back into it.

This transformation of the Riad in began with a discussion between the artists in Tetouan, Morocco in 2008 about similarities in their artworks and how each artist attempts to engage their public with representations of space, surface tempo and experiments with materials. As a true collaboration, both M’barek and Eric bring with them their artistic sensibilities and eagerness to learn from what the other has to offer with this unique project, leaving behind their normal artistic materials. Using quotidian materials from the Moroccan Souks like craft-paper, plastic sheeting and indoor/outdoor lights, M’barek and Eric spent 4 days responding to the architecture, artisanal pattern-work, and effects of natural light in the space.

With the exhibition “Architectural Responses” M’barek and Eric invite the public to participate in a living artwork. The efforts of their artistic collaboration offer a new strategy for engaging a public with highly theatrical experiences, asking the public to walk around, change viewpoints, interact, explore, touch and sense the artwork. The public’s experience of this space becomes a performance, each individual creating their own meaning and interpretation of this playful space.

Bouchichi and Saline