Among So Many
Encounter with Safaa Erruas, Abdellah Karroum, Karim Rafi and Younes Rahmoun
Free, until full capacity is reached, with prior ticket collection on the Museo Reina Sofía website from 10am on the last working day before the activity. A maximum of 1 per person. Doors open 30 minutes before the activity.
In conjunction with the exhibition Moroccan Trilogy 1950–2020 (from 31 March to 27 September 2021), the Museo Reina Sofía organises Among So Many, a conversation between artists Safaa Erruas, Karim Rafi and Younes Rahmoun and the show’s curator, Abdellah Karroum, who will moderate and activate the debate. The aim of the encounter is to explore in greater depth the interstices, conflicts and contours of the complexities of contemporary art production in Morocco.
This activity signals the start of In the Meantime, a public programme arising from a collaboration between Museo Reina Sofia, Casa Árabe and Medialab Prado and an accompaniment to the exhibition, setting out a rich and varied set of actions that include workshops, encounters, seminars and debates. The focus is on events in interstitial spaces which open between three historical junctures underpinning the exhibition: colonial independence (1956–1969), the Years of Lead (1970–1999) and contemporaneity (1999–2020), placing the stress on the present and the artistic and collective strategies materialising in Morocco’s major cities.
Thus, Among So Many puts forward a space of dialogue from the work of three same-generation artists situated in the final period of the show and whose works initiate a space of reflection on other possible narratives in Spain’s neighbouring country.
Participants
Safaa Erruas is an artist who graduated from the Institut National des Beaux-Arts, Tétouan, in 1998. Since 1996, she has been exhibiting regularly in France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Norway, Algeria, India and the USA, with her work exploring the ideas of body and borders through visceral objects made with fabrics.
Abdellah Karroum is an art critic and exhibition curator, and has been director of the Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Qatar, since June 2013. In 2002, he founded l’Appartement 22, a gallery located in a small apartment in front of Moroccan Parliament in Rabat.
Karim Rafi is an artist who lives and works in Casablanca. A student of graphic design and electronics, his work questions man and his environment, institutions, ideas, the context surrounding him and relationships with himself. Rafi is the co-founder of the Slam&klam Festival, a multidisciplinary creative space with a focus on poetry and (art_lab), a laboratory of independent artistic research.
Younes Rahmoun is an artist who lives and works in Tétouan. After studying Fine Arts in his hometown, Rahmoun has exhibited his installations in a number of cities in Europe and Morocco, incorporating in his projects influences from his own cultural sphere and his origins, in addition to personal beliefs and experiences. His works reveal a formal and aesthetic concern, giving rise to the search for universality and spirituality.