For several years, Amina Benbouchta has developed a body of work that is rooted in the exploration of the limits of painting, transforming concepts and observations into picture, sculpture and installation. The diversity of mediums she explores, allows a full analyzation of the complex social structure of contemporary life.
Read MoreBenbouchta was born in Casablanca (Morocco) in 1963, and lives and works between Paris and Casablanca. After graduating in 1986 in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies at McGill University, Montreal, she attended various workshops of drawing, lithography and etching in Paris. She was also an auditor at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts de Paris from 1988 to 1990. Her artistic-cultural concerns led her to run the fashion & culture magazine "Les Alignés", during the 90's. In 2005, she co-founded the Collectif 212, an organization dedicated to defending the emergence of a new phase of contemporary art in Morocco.
Since 1986, her work has been presented in Morocco and abroad in numerous institutions and contemporary art events, including The Cairo Biennial (1993), The French Institute of Casablanca (1995), The National Museum of Women and the Arts - Washington DC USA (1997), Kerava Museum - Finland (2003), The Museum of Marrakech (2004), The Casa Arabe Madrid (2008), The Biennial of Alexandria (2009),The Art Fair Brussels and Marrakech Art Fair in 2010. In September 2011, she had a solo show at Docks Art Fair Lyon, followed by a solo show at the gallery Artae Lyon, in echo with the Biennial event of Lyon, in November. In 2013, she exhibited her photographs in Paris, Amsterdam and Tokyo; and at The Dubai Art Fair, in 2014. In March of that same year, she participated in the inaugural exhibition of contemporary art center of Vienna. Later in October 2014, her work was part of the inaugural exhibition of the Museum of Mohamed VI of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rabat.
AMINA'S STATEMENT
'I prefer to devote myself to a work that asks questions of the future of the human being, in a universal way, without constantly bringing back the debate to the details of origin or identity.'
—Amina Benbouchta
Through a wide range of practice that evolves harmoniously between painting, photography, works on paper, sculpture, installation and video, Amina Benbouchta leads an anthropological reflection, which explores in a singular way, the existing dialogue between environment, objects of the everyday life and the human figure, while highlighting this poetry of chance that often emanates from their meeting.
She invents a symbolic language, from both personal concerns and socio-cultural issues: making visible what escapes the visible. Her work is not composed of a separate series. Alternatively, each new image is added, and completes the set which pre-exists. Her research draws from an intrinsic universe, absorbing elements that evoke atmospheres related to the already existing work.
Beyond the poetic and metaphorical readings that her works inspire, there is a relevant political dimension in her creations. Each realized work corresponds to a new way of understanding the existing challenges of living as a contemporary woman in the public and private space. She questions how to position oneself in this structured, male-dominant society.
