Wednesday, November 27, 2024 at 1:04 p.m.
Fez- “Traitillism”, the first Moroccan plastic movement, captivated plastic art lovers in Fez on the occasion of the opening Tuesday of a colorful collective exhibition in the spiritual capital of the Kingdom.
Confirmed and emerging painters from Morocco and abroad, around twenty of them exhibited their latest paintings with the common thread of the intangible wealth of the Kingdom under the evocative theme “heritage in another form”, in the presence of the wali of the Fez-Meknes region, governor of the Fez prefecture, Mouaad Jamai.
Orchestrated by the painter and writer Afif Bennani, this collective exhibition allows the public to admire the brushstrokes characteristic of this purely Moroccan plastic movement that is “Traitillism”.
In a statement to MAP, Mr. Bennani, president of the National Order of Painters and Photographers, explained that this exhibition is the culmination of a long artistic journey which began in 1992.
Indeed, he explained, Morocco has given birth, over the decades, to great painters, but who were always influenced by foreign movements, particularly Western ones.
However, confided Mr. Bennani, “my ambition was to no longer remain dependent” on any foreign movement”
“I continued to do research in terms of style, techniques, from the Italian Renaissance to the present day, and in 2018 I created some paintings with a very particular style, only with lines” , he continued.
These paintings aroused the admiration of the French writer and art critic Daniel Couturier who gave the movement the name it now bears, Traitillism.
Indeed, for this fine connoisseur of Moroccan art, Traitillism is “the expression and style of a new school of which Morocco can only be proud”.
“Through Traitillism, painters reflect on their canvases beautiful and noble themes, fair proportions, a balanced composition, overall harmony and subjects which contribute to the magic of contemporary art through a specifically Moroccan sensitivity” , he explains.
For this art critic, Afif Bennani, the founder of this school, “focused on the style and technique of this movement by representing on the canvas an infinite number of small lines breaking down the subject that the eye knows how to recast, thus doubling the pointillism that emerged at the beginning of the last century.”
In a statement to MAP, the Head of the Cultural and Artistic Animation Department at the Mohammed VI Foundation for the Promotion of Social Works in Education and Training, Radouane Mourai, recalled that this exhibition is the second of its kind after the one held last May in Rabat with the theme “Traitillism”.
“The goal of this collective exhibition is to open up to a new audience in Fez in order to make this new artistic movement known,” he said.
This exhibition continues until December 8 at the Iklyle Fez cultural center of the Mohammed VI Foundation for the Promotion of Social Works of Education-Training. Some 70 paintings with suggestive captions, such as “the Kasbah of Tinzouline” by Afif Bennani, “The Man of Laâyoune” by Aicha Aarji or the “Glance of the Lion of the Atlas” by Karima Alami rub shoulders with striking works talented artists like Mohamed Chiadmi, Mostapha Batha and Mohamed Mikou.
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