Loft Art Gallery presents ‘Homesick’, a solo exhibition of 20 new works by Moroccan-Belgian photographer Mous Lamrabat, at the gallery’s Marrakech space, Morocco. Mous Lamrabat celebrates a singular style that boldly combines tradition and modernity, creating the distinctive portraiture style he is known for. His work navigates two worlds: that of his Moroccan roots and that of his life in the diaspora. Through powerful photographs loaded with symbolism, he reinvents cultural codes by mixing them with elements of pop culture and a resolutely contemporary aesthetic.
Lamrabat’s cross-cultural works reflect Loft Art Gallery’s aim to create a major art bridge between Morocco and the rest of the world, maintaining a focus on Africa. ‘Homesick’, is an exploration into the heart of the artist’s own homesickness, a feeling that inevitably connects him to his native Morocco. The works presented in this series are invitations to reflect on the notions of identity, belonging and the complexity of origin. The photographs on display can be read as visual testimonies of memories and sensations, capturing the essence of the artist’s experience of Morocco.
Photographed like glossy editorials, Mous Lamrabat’s portraits take place in utopian spaces that exist beyond a world of cultural divisions. Lamrabat is best known for works set in an invented world he calls Mousganistan, which young people move through clad in garments and accessories that seamlessly blend the iconography of Western capitalism such as McDonald’s golden arches and Nike’s swoosh, with signifiers of Islamic and North African culture such as henna and the niqab. Lamrabat’s images reflect the artist’s transcontinental experience as a Moroccan Muslim immigrant living in Belgium, and his use of emblematic icons speaks to his feelings of being caught between cultures. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, Lamrabat has gained renown in the world of fashion photography for his glamorous style, this led to one of his photographs gracing the cover of Vogue Arabia in 2021. Informed by popular culture and sci-fi movies, his work explores notions of belonging.
Mous Lambrabat uses the the Moroccan star, a powerful national symbol, as a recurring motif in these photographs, serving as a bridge between nostalgia and hope, between elsewhere and home. These scenes, both intimate and universal, reflect the artist’s love for his native land and his desire to preserve these fragments of memory, even from miles away. More than an exhibition, ‘Homesick’ is a sensory and emotional exploration of what it means to be connected to a land while living elsewhere, a true ode to identity and love for Morocco. ‘Homesick’ opens on the 30th of January and will run until the 15th of March 2025, the exhibition coincides with the 1-54 Marrakech art fair, in which Loft Art Gallery will be taking part with work by Nassim Azarzar, Bouchra Boudoua and Amina Agueznay. Loft Art Gallery will also be showing a solo show by Bouchra Boudoua at El Fenn, a riad owned by Vanessa Branson, largely dedicated to art.
