Abdessamad El Montassir is a bearer of stories and his backdrop is the Sahara: he tells the desert, unfettered, with the freedom of hypothesis. His work is a research, an investigation into something that escapes us. He gives forms to silences and a texture to mutism.

Because El Montassir is a historian without archives, an argonaut of the great outdoors and a  track hound of the territories. His work resembles an anthology of poems, is like a scientific novel and exists as a song of transmission. At the same time, he highlights the capacity of plants and non-human elements to act on the world, even transforming or influencing it.

The exhibition “Surgir des cendres” (“Rising from the Ashes”) brings together two of his recent projects, Al Amakine and Achayef, which, faced with the immateriality of history, become guardians of the stories that belong to the people and create a narrative that conventional history has not been able to tell.

Excerpt of “De l’enfant de sable, au créateur à l’ombre des arbres d’épines: Abdessamad El Montassir, vers une esthétique du silence” by Taous R. Dahmani

This project is co-produced by the artiste, Le Cube – independent art room, Carte Blanche by Al Safar, the Institut Français du Maroc, the IMéRA with the help pf Labex RFIEA+, Moussem Nomadic Art Center, Pro Helvetia Cairo, The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, the gmem-CNCM-Marseille and the plateforme CHRONIQUES, supported by a Région Sud, the City of Marseille and the Institut Français à Paris, coordinated by SECONDE NATURE and ZINC.
Sound piece created in collaboration with the composer Matthieu Guillin.
Implementation: Société Lumière and the Atelier Deuxième Œil.
Delegated production: Le Cube – independent art room.