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What are the genealogies of performance art in North Africa and the Middle East?

Hassan Darsi
28 May 2015

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hassan Darsi

's artistic practice is highly influenced by his life, the everyday, and his environment, by way of processes of work, which use multiple mediums and often take the form of participative projects. In 1995 he founded the project La source du lion (The source of the lion) in Casablanca. Starting in 1999, Hassan Darsi developed a work centred around gilding, his material of choice being gold paper with which he covers objects - dolls, garden chairs, televisions, tanks, teeth - but also public spaces, notably the façade of an art gallery in Casablanca in 2007, the concrete blocks of the pier at Guia de Isora Port in Tenerife in 2008, and those of the pier at the port in Marseille in 2012. In 2001 he initiated the series Portraits de familles (Family Portraits), which from 2001 to 2007 offered the opportunity to the inhabitants of seven cities across the world to pose for him in his travelling workshop. The Hermitage Park project developed in the form of artistic footbridges from 2002 to 2008, marking the beginning of a series of activities and works linked to questions concerning the city, architecture and public space, including: Le lion se meurt (The lion is dying) (2004–2005), Le passage de la modernité (The passage from modernity) (2008), Le square d'en bas (The square from below) (2009), Accrochage zéro (Point zero) (2008), Le toit du monde (The roof of the world) (2010), and Chantiers en or (Building gold). Parallel to these projects, he has participated in numerous international exhibitions in art centres, museums and biennales. His work is on view in public and private collections in Morocco and abroad. The piece Le Project de la Maquette (The Model Project) (2002–2003) has recently become part of the collection at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

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