Artist talk with Nassim Azarzar on “All Things Flow” (2023), “Bonne Route” (2018-present), and other projects

Episode 187: Artist talk with Nassim Azarzar on “All Things Flow” (2023), “Bonne Route” (2018-present), and other projects

Nassim Azarzar is an artist and graphic designer researching visual and popular imaginaries in Morocco by exploring their different forms, occurrences, and representation tools. In 2023, Azarzar took part in the project School of Casablanca, initiated by the KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin) and ThinkArt (Casablanca), which draws from the legacy of the Casablanca Art School and its innovative pedagogical methods, modernist aesthetics, and exhibition strategies in 1960s Morocco. During the early 1960s, a group of artists, including Belkahia, Chabâa, Hamidi, Maraini, and Melehi, joined the Casablanca Art School faculty and restructured its curriculum. They also formed a collective called the School of Casablanca and shared similar aesthetic and conceptual concerns. Azarar’s installation, All Things Flow (2023), created a sonic and visual timeline of the Moroccan Modernist School of Casablanca group, inviting viewers into a meditative reflection on their history. Taking this work as a starting point for our conversation, in the podcast, we discuss various directions in Azarzar’s practice and potential parallels between his practice and the works of artists from the School of Casablanca.

Nassim Azarzar (@nazarzar) is an artist and graphic designer who lives and works between Paris and Rabat. For several years, he has been developing an ongoing project called «Bonne route» dealing with ornamental practices of trucks transporting goods between the port cities of Tangier, Casablanca, Agadir, and the Moroccan villages of the Atlas, and the Rif. Azarzar’s aesthetic research revolves around decorative arts, painting, drawing, sculpture, graphic design, and experimental cinema. Before joining QANAT (a collective of artists and researchers exploring the political and poetic dimensions of water) in 2019, Azarzar co-founded and initiated multiple creative endeavors, among them: Atelier Superplus (@atelier_superplus), a design studio operating between Paris, Bristol, and Tangier in 2014; Think Tanger (@thinktanger), a platform dedicated to the exploration of the city of Tangier and its extensions at the urban and visual levels in 2016; and Atelier Kissaria (@tanger.print.club) in 2017 focused on experimental printing practices.

This interview was led by Beya Othmani, CAORC/Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Modern Art History, and was recorded on January 7, 2024 via Zoom as part of the Modern Art in the Maghrib series. This is part of a larger Council of American Overseas Research Centers program organized by the Centre d'Études Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT) and financed by the Andrew Mellon Foundation that seeks to collaborate with local institutions for a greater awareness of art historical research in north Africa.

To see related slides please visit our website: www.themaghribpodcast.com

 

We thank our friend Ignacio Villalón for his guitar performance for the introduction and conclusion of this podcast.

Production and editing: Lena Krause, AIMS Resident Fellow at the Centre d’Études Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT).