Texte: "Dimensions variables",par Emma Chubb

"Dimensions variables", exhibition by Faouzi Laatiris at Galerie FJ, Casablanca
A review by Emma Chubb


Galerie FJ presents a solo exhibition by Faouzi Laatiris. Entitled "Dimensions variables," the exhibition is a group of recent new work by the artist, much of which was produced in 2008.
Thursday 4 December 2008
"Dimensions variables," the ambitious inaugural exhibition at Galerie FJ, is indicative of the direction Jellal intends to pursue. Featuring a new body of work produced for Galerie FJ, this exhibition was an opportunity for artist Faouzi Laatiris (2) to realize works upon which he has long reflected and developed into studio models. The show contains sculpture, works on paper, paintings, and 1,001 projected photos that both reference Shezarade’s 1,001 Nights and dissect its contemporary reimaginings. Downstairs, large paintings flank the gallery walls. Their shape is inspired by Morocco’s somewhat erratic urban expansion whereby free-standing houses are built in anticipation of future adjacent neighbors but remain, for now, a row-house sans row. Such references to the local built environment are further underscored by the freestanding piece with which the show opens. Its shape mirrors the large dumpsters one finds stationed throughout Morocco’s urban and semi-urban spaces. The colors and scale here are emphatic - Pepto-Bismol/bubble gum pink, Ferrari red, and gold leaf – the small details of a bottle of medicine, a piece of candy, a swath of automobile paint, or a manuscript’s illumination blown way out of proportion. A line of five sculptures occupy the gallery’s low-ceilinged center, tracing the artist’s own development where Beuys (from whose coiffeur sprouts emerge), Omar Khayyam, Mozart, Jellal, and Laatiris himself have been cast as winged centaurs. Indeed, there is a certain mythology that Laatiris evokes throughout this exhibition, although one doesn’t ever quite feel certain whose.

Galerie FJ, 4 rue de La Réunion, Casablanca. T +212 (0) 61 41 37 02. www.galeriefj.ma

Faouzi Laatiris is an artist and professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Tetouan (Morocco). With fellow artist Batoul S’Himi, he founded the art space, Espace 150 x 295 cm, in 2006 in Martil (Morocco) which hosts regular exhibitions, workshops, and events
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