The ninth meetings of Art and beauty which have been taking place since January 3, 2025, in Madaba, on the shores of the Dead Sea, in Jordan, see the participation of the Moroccan visual artist Mounia Wafi who registers there a new stopover in his very promising artistic journey.
These days dedicated to arts and culture are among the largest art events in the Arab world. This stopover in a site as steeped in history as the Madaba region, a stone’s throw from Mount Nebo, the banks of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, is one of the cradles of humanity, with an ancient history, a exceptional civilizational heritage and a great charge of sacredness. It is in this historic setting that Morocco participates, through the work of one of its artists, Mounia Wafi, in a major event which brings together visual artists from Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, the Emirates United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Sultanate of Oman and other countries, thus celebrating the meeting of cultures and the dialogue of civilizations. For Moroccan artist Mounia Wafi, this participation is an honor, “but also a great responsibility, since I represent my country, Morocco, and I am keen to show a work worthy of the name, with a real message of unity and rapprochement between peoples, especially in a time of unrest, like the one we are going through today.
It is in this sense that I worked on the tree of life, the tree of our common origins, the tree which unites us all, as different as we are, by roots which bind us to each other. , in our differences and our particularities,” underlines the Moroccan artist, who shows us a heterogeneous universe, in a pictorial landscape, both rich and diversified, offering variations on several major themes such as life and living , as is the case with the tree, which has become her signature, like the processions of silhouettes which walk in collective or individual pilgrimages, like this mosaic of shapes and colors, which characterize another style on which Mounia Wafi works. The artist is also aware of the importance of such collective meetings between artists from different backgrounds to first see the work of others, then to immerse herself in their work and their research and finally, to exchange with them on this intertextuality of art, which is its foundation and driving force: “Absolutely, because, by working here with masters of the plastic arts in the Arab world like Mohamed Fattah, Hicham El Fakharani or even Haidar Fakher, young artists like me learn from contact with their elders.
We exchange, we listen and we benefit from the great experience of all these teachers who have exhibited throughout the world and who maintain great humility both as a person and as a known and recognized artist. For me, these meetings are a great lesson, certainly artistic, but also a profound lesson in life,” explains Mounia Wafi, who appreciates how fortunate she is to have been selected and invited to take part in this high mass of visual arts, in a country like Jordan whose rich culture inspires us. It is also a coincidence of those who are delighted to find gathered, in Madaba, in the wings of Palestine, all these Arab figures who also come together to celebrate peace, in a region ravaged by wars: “ What touched me deeply as an Arab artist was being a few kilometers from Palestinian lands.
While working on site, with all the other artists, we all have in mind what the Palestinian people have been going through for many decades. Moreover, the immense voice of Fayrouz accompanies us when we go on excursions or when we all paint in this immense room set up as a common workshop. Not to mention our group outings to see up close whole sections of the presence of Prophets like Moussa at Mount Nebo, to see the Dead Sea and the Jordan River, to see Petra and the Nabataean heritage, all these things add a lot of weight additional emotion to these meetings which celebrate diversity and sharing in the Arab world today,” says Mounia Wafi.
In fact, these cultural days in Jordan have always been able to show the different currents of artistic thought in the Arab world. The organizers insist on this vast space that is Arab, Maghreb or Mashreq art, with this constant: offering artists who have a universe, artists who have a human message to share, artists who work for peace in the world and for the influence of cultures through beauty: “It is this message that emerges from all the conferences that we have organized here in Madaba, with the intervention of great Arab artists, like Ali Krichan, who insisted on the place of arts and of culture to build responsible societies, people who highlight the greatness of their history and rely on creativity and individual freedoms as a cultural dynamic, which goes beyond borders,” concludes the artist.
