Amina Benbouchta

Amina Benbouchta


Born in 1963 in Casablanca, Morocco.

Lives and works in Casablanca, Morocco.


   Presentation


Through her installations, paintings, and photographs, Amina Benbouchta explores the ambiguity of women’s conditions in a society where they are honored and sacralized on one hand, and belittled and threatened on the other. In her work, she evokes this gap or balancing, depending, between the norms of contemporary life and those of tradition, through her emphasis on the contrast between the beauty of forms, colors, and materials, and other recurring elements alluding to confinement, oppression, and submission. Thrown, like Alice, into the heart of a reality/fiction she tries to make sense of, the artist explores the violence and kindness of our complex time in a sensitive way. She opens a poetic path in which universality tells her aspiration to freedom. 

 

Amina Benbouchta has opened a unique path in the Moroccan contemporary art landscape. While renewing the very old confrontation with painting, its tradition, and codes, she also develops a work around volume and space. She explores her recurring themes, objects of memory or retinal persistence, on canvas and paper or in the form of installations that play on scale and materials. An archaic body is speaking through these forms presented in a subtle play of veiling/unveiling, appearance/concealment, a play of transparency also present in her recent work on altuglas, at the surface of a reality that remains nonetheless violent and dark. Always on the edge, Amina Benbouchta, from this part of the world where she creates her work, claims it is possible to stand in a universal relationship with the world and remain outside of identity issues. Our inner landscapes, the memorial images we conjure up inside, even if heterogeneous, reconcile us with ourselves and question this relationship. 


   Education

1986    Bachelor in anthropology Middle East studies, Mc Gill University, Montreal, Canada

For several years, Amina Benbouchta has developed a body of work that is rooted in the exploration of the limits of painting, transforming concepts and observations into picture, sculpture and installation. The diversity of mediums she explores, allows a full analyzation of the complex social structure of contemporary life.

Benbouchta was born in Casablanca (Morocco) in 1963, and lives and works between Paris and Casablanca. After graduating in 1986 in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies at McGill University, Montreal, she attended various workshops of drawing, lithography and etching in Paris. She was also an auditor at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts de Paris from 1988 to 1990. Her artistic-cultural concerns led her to run the fashion & culture magazine "Les Alignés", during the 90's. In 2005, she co-founded the Collectif 212, an organization dedicated to defending the emergence of a new phase of contemporary art in Morocco.

Since 1986, her work has been presented in Morocco and abroad in numerous institutions and contemporary art events, including The Cairo Biennial (1993), The French Institute of Casablanca (1995), The National Museum of Women and the Arts - Washington DC USA (1997), Kerava Museum - Finland (2003), The Museum of Marrakech (2004), The Casa Arabe Madrid (2008), The Biennial of Alexandria (2009),The Art Fair Brussels and Marrakech Art Fair in 2010. In September 2011, she had a solo show at Docks Art Fair Lyon, followed by a solo show at the gallery Artae Lyon, in echo with the Biennial event of Lyon, in November. In 2013, she exhibited her photographs in Paris, Amsterdam and Tokyo; and at The Dubai Art Fair, in 2014. In March of that same year, she participated in the inaugural exhibition of contemporary art center of Vienna. Later in October 2014, her work was part of the inaugural exhibition of the Museum of Mohamed VI of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rabat.
Solo shows at Ceysson Gallery
Amina Benbouchta, Lyon
February 23 - March 25, 2023


Group shows at Ceysson Gallery
Le monde et le reste, Paris
May 20 - July 07, 2017



Solo shows
 
2016  
Traversées, Dar El Kitab, Casablanca, Morocco

 2015    
(M)eta(M)orphosis, Sabrina Amrani Gallery, Madrid, Spain
Femmes au pluriel, Salon International de Tanger des livres et des arts, Tanger, Morocco

2014    
Tout ce qui brille Matisse Art Gallery, Marrakech, Morocco

2013  
Galerie Granville, Paris, France
Down the rabbit hole Sabrina Amrani Gallery, Madrid, Spain

2012    
Matisse Art Gallery Marrakech Morocco
Galerie Talmart, Paris, France

2011     
Galerie Artae, Lyon, France,
De l'autre coté du miroir Espace Le Cube, Rabat, Morocco

2010     
Villa Matisse Art Contemporain, Marrakech, Morocco
Espace Le Cube, Rabat, Morocco

2009     
Matisse Art Gallery, Casablanca, Morocco
La source du Lion, Casablanca, Morocco

2008     
Galerie Ré, Marrakech, Morocco
Galerie Souffle. Casablanca, Morocco

2006     
Amina Benbouchta, Le Cube, Rabat, Morocco

2004     
Foundouk Bachko, Saâd Hassani, Casablanca, Morocco

1997     
Espace ''9'', Casablanca, Morocco

1996     
Galerie El Manar, Casablanca, Morocco.

1995     
IFC French Cultural Institute, Casablanca, Morocco

1994     
Galerie Winance-Sabbe, Brussels, Belgium

1992    
 Galerie El Manar, Casablanca, Morocco

1991     
Galerie Arcanes, Rabat, Morocco

Group shows
 
2017    
Waste lands, Museo San Telmo, San Sebastián, Spain
Le monde et le reste, curated by Bernard Collet, Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Paris, France

2016    
Feminart II, Espacio Turina, Sevilla, Spain
Des nuages et des formes, Villa Dela porte, Casablanca, Morocco
Waste Lands Es Baluard, Mallorca, Spain
EastWing Biennial, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, United-Kingdom
I love you, VideoInsight Foundation, Torino, Italy

2015     
Traces of the Future, Marrakech Museum for Photography an Visual Arts, Marrakech, Morocco
 Intercession Galeria Delacroix, Tanger, Morocco

2014    
The luxury of dirt, Voice Gallery, Marrakech, Morocco
Regards Orientalistes, Hôtel Selmane, Marrakech, Morocco
La forme animale, Venise Cadre Galerie. Casablanca, Morocco
1914 - 2014: Cent and de crétion, curated by M. Rachdi, Musée Mohamed VI d'Art Moderne et Contemporain/MMVI, Rabat, Morocco
Préfiguration, Centre d'art contemporain Halle des Bouchers, Vienne, France
Please rewind! Sabrina Amrani Gallery, Madrid, Spain

2013     
Mil caras Instituto Cervantes, Centre d'art de Tétouan, Morocco
The World Is Not As I See It, Musée Slaoui, Casablanca, Morocco
Mil caras, Musée Slaoui, Casablanca, Morocco

2012    
The World Is Not As I See It Galerie Dominique Fiat, Paris, France
Cuerpos Sabrina Amrani Gallery, Madrid, Spain
Art/code/21_siècle, Institut Français de Tanger, Morocco

2011     
Le Deuxième Regard Institut Français de Rabat et Espace de la CDG, Rabat, Morocco

2009  
25th Alexandria Biennale for Mediterranean Countries Alexandria, Egypt
Figures du corps SG Bank, Casablanca, Morocco
Efemmeras Instituto Cervantes, Tanger, Morocco
Connexions Bergerac Museum, France
Passerelle VII  Villa des Arts ONA Fondation, Casablanca, Morocco

2008     
Matisse Art Gallery, Marrakech, Morocco
Arte Contemporaneo en Marruecos Casa Árabe, Madrid, Spain
Les 15, Galerie Ré, Marrakech, Morocco
Estiu art 2008, Castel de Denia, Denia, Spain
Exposition du Collectif 212, Le Cube, Rabat, Morocco
Visual Art and New Medias Festival Casablanca, Morocco
Art Galleries Night Le cube, Rabat, Morocco

2007    
 Women and art in Morocco, Fundación Colegio del Rey, Madrid, Spain

2006     
Genap 2005, Sacré Cœur Cathedral, Casablanca, Morocco

2005     
Collectif 212 '30 par 30' Le cube, Rabat, Morocco
L'inspiration en partage Le cube, Rabat, Morocco

2004    
Maroc-France, expériences croisées, Marrakech Art Museum, Morocco.
Visions actuelles, Al Akhawayn University, Ifrane, Morocco
Transparency, Maroc/CDG, Rabat, Morocco
Traits Gravures - Bahnini  Ministry of Culture, Rabat, Morocco
Parcours d'artistes, Rabat, Morocco

2003    
Moroccan painters, Lycée Descartes, Rabat, Morocco
Moroccan artists, Kerava Museum, Finland
Looking for our secret Atlas Actua, Casablanca, Morocco

2002    
Painters from our times, El Manar Gallery, Casablanca, Morocco

2001     
Women artists in Morocco Bab El Kebir, Rabat, Morocco
Moroccan painters, Les Ateliers d'Arts Plastiques, Lille, France
Moroccan contemporary art Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Moroccan contemporary art Barcelona, Spain
Moroccan contemporary art Valencia, Spain

1999     
Gardens of stone El Manar Gallery, Casablanca, Morocco

1997     
Présences plastiques Rabat Hospital, Morocco
Three Moroccan painters National Museum of Women and the Arts, Washington D.C, USA
Exposition pour l'Algérie, Galerie Nikki Diana Marquart, Paris, France

1995    
 Casablanca, fragments d'imaginaire, IFC French Cultural Institute, Casablanca, Morocco
Damasco Gallery, Edimburgh, United-Kingdom

1994     
Moroccan Exhibition, Disney Hall, Orlando, Florida, USA

1993     
Cairo Art Biennal, Cairo, Egypt
Amina Benbouchta catalogs 

2009 
Amina Benbouchta, La surface et le coeur, text by Bernard Collet, Jean-Pierre Huguet Editor 
Amina Benbouchta, catalogue Lisières et débordement, Villa des Arts ONA, Casablanca, Morocco 
Amina Benbouchta, catalogue Espace Souffle, Casablanca, Morocco
CHASSEUR D’IMAGES - Amina Benbouchta - Avril 2023
CHASSEUR D’IMAGES -
April 01, 2023
Voir le fichier
EXIT MAG - Wolf trap and crinolines - 2023
EXIT MAG - La Redaction
March 23, 2023
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EXIT MAG - Amina Benbouchta: one pound of flesh - Mars 2023
EXIT MAG -
March 18, 2023
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LE PETIT BULLETIN - Amina Benbouchta - 14 mars 2023
LE PETIT BULLETIN -
March 14, 2023
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LA TRIBUNE DE LYON - Amina Benbouchta - François Mailhes - 9 mars 2023
LA TRIBUNE DE LYON - François Mailhes
March 09, 2023
Voir le fichier
LE MONDE ET LE RESTE
LE MONDE ET LE RESTE
June 27, 2017