“Mapping displacement”: exile seen through the art of Yassine Chouati

Yassine Chouati, a graduate in art and heritage from the University of Seville, has an artistic career marked by international residencies and exhibitions in Spain, Sweden, Mexico, Denmark, Finland and Brazil. The artist has chosen to focus on the condition of exiles and the way in which exile transforms the relationship to time, space and identity.

In his work, Chouati explores the disorientation specific to uprooting, a theme that he addresses through artistic processes where the meaning is often concealed, and the narration deliberately fragmented. This creates a visual and sensory experience that destabilizes the viewer, inviting them to deeper reflection on the invisible and the ineffable.

According to the artist, his exploration of exile resonates with literary works such as those of Joseph Conrad, highlighting the anxiety and narrative distortions linked to this experience. “I seek to transcribe the solitude and alienation of the exile, while recognizing the limits of language in the face of the intensity and complexity of these experiences. However, my approach is distinguished by its visual and sensory nature, where I seek to translate the intangible through a staging that destabilizes the viewer,” he says.

Through his various series, such as “La Crónica” (2016-2018), “Estoy respirando bajo agua” (2019-2020) and “Cartografías de desarraigo” (2019-2024), Chouati explores the themes of memory, melancholy and fragmentation of identity. In “La Crónica”, he focuses on the figure of Mehdi Ben Barka to question collective memory and the way in which the history of the country is woven with personal stories. “My objective was, on the one hand, to reclaim the collective memory by highlighting the legends and stories that continue to circulate within the community. On the other hand, through an aesthetic reflection, I wanted to establish an evocative parallel with my personal history, the fruit of an unresolved past which was imposed on me and which I never chose. he explains.

With “Estoy respirando bajo agua”, he draws on the novel Partir by Tahar Ben Jelloun, retracing the contradictions of the character of Azel, a young man who, after crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, rejects the idea of ​​returning to Morocco . For Chouati, this series reflects his own experience of exile, where we navigate between two worlds and where nostalgia and rejection coexist.

In “Cartografías de desarraigo”, a project that combines drawing, screen printing and lithography, the artist explored the imagination as an introspective space, where images emerge spontaneously to address existential questions such as melancholy, death, time and identity. This project represents for him an act of reconciliation with his past, a personal journey where creation becomes a means of giving form to the invisible.

This exhibition goes beyond the framework of a simple artistic encounter: it acts as a link between my present and my roots, a deeply significant return to my native land. It symbolizes an intimate reconciliation with the place that saw me born, establishing a discreet dialogue between what I left behind and what I shaped far away, far from the shores of my childhood. Espace Rivages, with its vocation to highlight the cultural and artistic expressions of Moroccans in the diaspora, fits harmoniously with my creative approach. This place acts as a reflection of my work, which questions the essence of uprooting: this sensation of being here while belonging elsewhere, suspended between two realities. This exhibition also becomes a space of poetic echo, where separation is transformed into a source of inspiration and uprooting into a search for meaning. It constitutes an offering to the viewer, an invitation to reconnect with what drives us, to rediscover the links that unite us and to question these invisible boundaries which, sometimes, distance us from ourselves. Ultimately, I revisit my origins to inscribe them in a language that is both visual and emotional, transcending geographical and cultural borders.

The “Mapping of Displacement” exhibition is much more than just an artistic event for Yassine Chouati. “It acts as a link between my present and my roots,” he declares. This intimate retrospective symbolizes a profound return to his native land, a dialogue between what he left behind and what he built far from his country of origin.

Espace Rivages, dedicated to showcasing the cultural expressions of Moroccans in the diaspora, thus becomes an ideal location for this exhibition. It offers an echo to the artist’s questions about separation and uprooting. For Chouati, art becomes an invitation to question the invisible boundaries that sometimes distance us from our own identity. “This exhibition constitutes an offering to the viewer, an invitation to reconnect with what drives us, to rediscover the links that unite us and to question these invisible borders which, sometimes, distance us from ourselves,” he concludes. .

“Mapping displacement” is not simply a work on uprooting, but a real emotional and visual journey across memories and cultural borders. A journey where the artist, through his works, invites us to revisit our origins and to question the roots that shape our identity.