Visual artist and photographer, Lalla Essaydi, returned to her hometown of Marrakech, with a daring exhibition entitled “The Unveiled Invisible” that opened on Monday at the Museum of Confluences at “Dar El Bacha.”
Sponsored by the National Foundation of Museums, the exhibition showcases the artist’s famous series “Harem,” which delves into the complex social and historical constructs surrounding the harem, which was a part of old Muslim households reserved for wives, concubines and female servants.
The opening was attended by notable figures involved in Morocco’s cultural and artistic landscape, such as the Wali of the Marrakech-Safi region and the governor of Marrakech, Farid Chourak, and the president of the National Foundation of Museums, Mehdi Qotbi.
Essaydi’s photographs transport the viewer into a fascinating part of the past, showcasing women dressed in elaborately patterned caftans, against Moroccan tiles, or zellige, and carved woodwork, transforming them into another decorative element of the palace.
Through her artistic vision, Essaydi questions and reinterprets archaic societal norms which are often fetishized in orientalist depictions of Arab women. Her lens offers an intimate look into the life of women who lived in these closed quarters of Muslim households.
The artist also incorporates elements of Arabic calligraphy into her work, an artform previously dominated by men, writing on the faces, hands, and feet of women using henna, which is traditionally a feminine tradition.
The collection of photographs in the exhibition “traces the course of history and, most importantly, brings both the photos and the location, laden with history, back into the spotlight,” Qotbi told MAP.
Essayidi explores her own identity and immortalizes spaces from her childhood through the medium of photography.
“My work reflects my experience as a woman who grew up in Moroccan and Muslim culture,” she said. “It is the story of my quest for a voice, the unique voice of an artist.”
Essaydi is Moroccan-American and has a Master of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston, where she first stepped into the world of photography.
Her work has been showcased in the United States, in cities such as Chicago, New York, and Boston, as well as internationally in countries such as France, the UAE, Japan, and the Netherlands.
Essaydi’s art is also displayed at major institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Louvre, and the British Museum.