Ismail Alaoui Fdili

Ismail Alaoui Fdili is a Moroccan artist and filmmaker, born in Casablanca, Morocco, in 1992.
He lives and works in Seine Saint-Denis.
After a DNAP in object design at Isdat in Toulouse, he joins ENSAPC in Cergy, where he obtains his DNSEP, before continuing his training in cinema at the Kourtrajmé school with Ladj Ly.

In 2021, he takes up residencies at Ateliers Médicis (Clichy-Montfermeil) and Fondation Fiminco (Romainville). In 2023, he takes part in the “Gunaikeîon” exhibition to mark the 40th anniversary of the Frac Île-de-France, and begins a residency at Université Paris 8 to develop a “mockumentary” series.

His artistic approach focuses on precarious jobs, the notion of work and the economic and social values that result from it. His works are rooted in reality, and question it through a variety of devices employing such diverse media as sculpture, performance, film, video games, photography and writing.

Ismail’s artistic work aims to bear subjective witness to the reality that surrounds him, in particular certain economic, environmental and social conditions to which the artist is sensitive.

His main interest goes beyond the choice to make it his profession. It lies above all in the encounters, followed by the effort of translating them into material, film or story. This work of transformation aims to direct the public’s gaze towards the people he wants to talk about.

“I was interested from an early age in marginal occupations, which are socially discredited and devalued. My need to create a plastic work was simply a pretext for engaging in a dialogue with people whose world is radically different from mine, and whose work undeniably brings value to society, without it recognizing.”