…
ROOTING OUT…
Rafael
Canogar
Catalogue:
Satellite Dish series (2001-2003)
Centro
de Estudios Juan de Mariana, Toledo.
Organized by
In spite of heavy commitments and a hectic timetable, I find it
impossible to come up with an excuse not to present the work of the painter
Said Messari. This is especially true as the exhibition is in a place where
both of us have common roots. I am talking about the town where I was
born-Toledo.
Said Messari is a Moroccan artist who has settled among us here in
I have visited
With the arrival of independence, Moroccan artists were confronted with
a colossal task; to break away from certain popular traditions of pictorialism,
while searching for a national identity in a modern westernised world. The
challenge for these artists was to conserve and strengthen their popular
artistic heritage by creating the morphology for a new language which they
would then make their own. I believe that the work Said Messari is an example
of this synthesis of identity, modernity and tradition.
The work of Said is essentially in the realm of “plastic arts”, rich in
metaphors and with dimensions which transcend the purely two dimensional
pictorial plane. At times, his work is a broken space, drilled and scarred – a
battle field between the artist and his creation where the material itself is a
testament to this hand to hand combat. At other times, the surface area of his
work literally grows with the incorporation of elements and extra-pictorial
objects. Astutely, Said gives these objects a new iconographic dimension as the
carriers of ideas and messages. Intrigued by its sensitivity and
expressiveness, I shall become an enthusiastic follower of Said Messari’s work
from now on.
… URBAN AND MENTAL LANDSCAPES…
Gonzalo Fernández Parrilla
Catalogue:
Satellite Dish series (2001-2003)
Centro
de Estudios Juan de Mariana, Toledo.
Organized by
With a friendly hand on the shoulder, Said Messari welcomes us to the
warm colours of his world. Once again, with his talent to flirt, he charms us
into visiting the cold world of information technology.
In this series Said takes a wink at the wonders of satellite technology
and the metal mushrooms which spring up on the roofs of palaces, apartment
blocks and modest homesteads of his native
The satellite dish is an object which has become a part of our mental
and urban landscape-it is a symbol of our times which represents satellite
communications and globalisation. For Said, these metal dishes, which he has
ingeniously moulded into the stretched canvas of modest frames, have a more
down to earth function. They have become of objects of craftsmanship to be
played with, painted and embroidered. Through his art, Said has turned on
object of high technology into a playful artefact and transformed our fears of
new technology into a game.
But, having said this, Said still keeps a firm grip on reality. Even
while he is painting plays he is stays alert. He is fully aware of what a
satellite dish represents – communication equals information equals power. Al-Jazeera,
the Quatar TV news channel, is the Arabic symbol of the satellite dish.
Since its coverage of the invasions of
But, let’s not get lost in the light waves of the universe. We must keep
our feet firmly on the ground while we gaze upward to the rooftops where we can
see the battle of the airwaves between the flickering, manipulated images of
the mass media versus the wisdom and serenity of the images of Said Messari.
BRINGING
ART INTO LIFE
Gonzalo Fernandez Parrilla
Catalogue: Bringing art into life, graphic works 1988-2000
In
Since
In the world of the Fine Arts this tendency came to its symbolic end in
the year 2000 when a series of events took place, the most important being, The
VIII International Exhibition of Graphic works and Engravings to which
Morocco was the guest country, the “Contemporary art exhibition of Morocco”
organised by the Institut Catala Mediterania and the start of the itinerant,
mixed exhibition of Tawassi Re. In addition, there were also a number of
meetings which were organised by the Western Mediterranean Association.
However, although this period was a turning point, it should be remembered that
as early as 1980, the Miro Foundation pioneered the “Contemporary Moroccan Art
Exhibition”. Finally, it is important to mention the Ras el Hanut Collectives
mixed exhibitions in the mid-nineties. All these events are symptomatic of the
gradual movement away from the vacuous official rhetoric which so dominated
Hispano-Morocco relations and which opened up new horizons to a world which
went beyond institutions.
The emergence of contemporary moroccan fine arts
Even though it is rooted in a multiple and diverse heritage, what we
know to day as Modern Moroccan Art, is a relatively recent phenomena. Based on
a pictorial tradition traditionally associated with popular art and
calligraphy, a group of self-taught artists emerged in the 1920’s. This group
tried out various forms close to realism of the
The consequence of the colonial experience in the Fine Arts is not only
palpable in the powerful influence of oriental pictorialism. During the
colonial period, institutions were founded which were going to play a crucial
role in the development of the Fine Arts in Morocco, for example; The School of
Fine Arts in Tetuan founded in 1945, whose director was Bertuchi and the School
of Fine Arts in Casablanca created in 1950.
It is supposed that the natural development of
After the euphoria of independence during the 60’s,
After a fallow period of institutional inaction with regard to the Fine
Arts, there was a flourish of artistic initiatives and activities. The Bab
Rouah and La Decouverte art galleries were inaugurated and the
magazines al-ishara and Integral were started
up. The old schools of Fine art in Tetuan and
In addition, the first manifestos were produced and a number of Fine
Arts associations were created. In 1969, the first collective exhibitions were
organised, for example, the Xma el Fna in Marrekesh and the Twelfth of November
Square in
Contemporary Moroccan art, which was forged in this period, incorporated
Bereber and African traditions drawn from the rich Arabic and Islamic heritage.
As a result, contemporary Moroccan art has drawn on the oriental experience
while, at the same time, opening itself up to modernity as it searches for its
own identity.
Despite what Claudio Guillen said about the avant-garde being a luxury
which emerging cultures could ill afford, the Moroccan artists very quickly
formed part of the world wide avant-garde movements for example, Cherkaoui and
Gharbaoui.
In the 70’s, the theoretical breakthroughs of the Moroccan pictorial
movement simultaneously rejected three tendencies: the widespread recourse to
Naïve Art, the use of folklorick orientalism and, the rigorous academia of the
Fine Arts.
In addition to Naïve Art which, in spite of its rather ambiguous status,
has never ceased to be cultivated, there is another traditional strand- the
figurative school of oriental dyes. This current emerged from the Fine Arts in
the last decades of the XX century and opened up the future to surrealism.
However, one of the most powerful tendencies in Moroccan painting has
been abstractionism; not only abstractionism but also geometric abstractionism
which sought to link up with the Islamic tradition. Added to these coexisting
currents, there is another important tendency namely, the use of symbolism in
popular art: calligraphy, leather crafts and carpet making crafts as well as in
different areas of popular culture.
The creative exile
It is increasingly difficult to acknowledge and recognise other
realities or the realities of others which stretch beyond our own, limited
horizon. This vision is especially true of
A consequence of this colonial mind set is the tendency to reduce other
cultures to a kind of cultural primitivism. Fanon and Said have commented on
the customary colonial attitude of reducing the colonial subjects to a kind of
oral primitiveness. In the case of Fine Arts, this condescending colonial
cultural superiority has relegated them to the status of popular arts or, at best,
Naïve Art. This attitude is reminiscent of the foreigners in Tangier who
adopted the street kids and then gave them paintbrushes in order that they
could develop their indigenous spontaneity.
It is important to mention, the way in which artist émigrés from distant
climes often have to move between two extremes. On the one hand, they are asked
to conform and perform according to the exotic appeal which their cultural and
geographic origins bestow on them. On the other hand, more than other artists,
the émigré artist is hungry to experience the new languages of artistic
expression which have come into his reach. The folkloric and ethnographic
aspects of the émigré artists’ background are mere anecdotes, which are yet
another thread in the rich, multilingual and polyphonic tapestry which make up
our universe. In turn, this forms part
of a kind of cultural Esperanto which all of us understand to some extent, but
few manage to understand in its totality.
In one of his essays, the Palestinian artist, Kamal Bullata has
discussed the frame of mind of émigré artists which can often be found in
... CAMELOT
OF
Malika Embarek López
Catalogue: Crossed Visions.
An exhibition of the work of
Federico Barranco and Said Messari.
Organized by the
«
Moroccan painters invite us to come on a journey to our inner selves »
Edmond
Amrán El Maleh
Tetuan. The modest
neighbourhood of Bab Essaida – A Morisco enclave of the city with access to the
Gate of Good Fortune- one of the most beautiful gates of the old wall which
surrounds the city. The year is 1956, the year of Moroccan Independence and the
birth of Said Messari.
Said Messari has a long track record of effort and achievement both as
an artist on his own and as part of a collective. His personal qualities of
generosity, solidarity and patience combined with his knack for making friends
have, no doubt, contributed to his success. However, it is his skills with
palette and printing press, his talent for mixing pigments and his creative use
of simple materials which have produced work which is truly original and which
has a great impact. Said has turned his hand to many things: engravings,
paintings, book sleeves, posters and computer graphics where he demonstrates
his prodigious skills.
But if you want to meet Said you
have to go on a journey to his imaginary country. A land where there is no
rush, where there is no competitiveness, ambition or lies. It is his land, his
Camelot with Arab cast. If you want to know the artist read in to his work. If
you want to see Said, ask for Pelahustan.
A PAINTER WHO LIVES AND BREATHES PAINTING
Emilio Sanz
Catalogue: Crossed Visions.
An exhibition of the work of
Federico Barranco and Said Messari.
Organized by the
The work of Said Messari is somewhat different. It is the work of a
painter who thinks and feels as a painter. The final work is the result of a
filtering process of thought and feeling which forms part of Said’s declared
aim to reduce the medium to its absolute essence.
The way of arriving at the essence of a work is in achieving the maximum
effect using the minimum resources. Thus, a spot is, in itself, the essence.
But, Said Messari, being the authentic painter that he is, replaces the spot
with yet another spot. No matter how obvious this is may be, he manages to
create an undoubted fusion, combined with a mix of techniques, to achieve
results which are immediately recognisable.
With Said Messari as with many painters with a solid academic
background, his academicism is always present in his work no matter how much he
tries to break from his past and no matter much he tries to conceal that past.
For this reason, there is not a hint of fortuitousness in Said’s work.
Everything is nurtured and thought out, and although the results may appear
more or less random, there is always the presence of a mind guiding the hand of
the painter.
As we all know, and we never tire of repeating this, it is the results
which matter. The identity of Said Messari is there in his work. It can be seen
in his complex forms to which he always adds some, supposedly insignificant
signs; a line or an arrow. These signs are like question marks of a painting in
search of itself. What we do know is that this search is unending because it is
the raison d’etre of Said’s work…..
NAMING AGAIN
Fanny Rubio
Catalogue: Consequences.
Painting exhibition.
Organized by the Hispano-Arab
Society,
Within the paintings of Said Messari there is an enormous repertory of
figures and forms; children, houses, small screens, multiple objects, brush
strokes and symmetries which have been transcended through the mirror of his
art.
Originally a painter of subjects, Said Messari has recently undergone a
process of reflection which has taken him, over and above meaning, to a
non-instrumental space. In this space, one could get the impression that Said
cannot, in fact, decide what his subject is. However, this is not the case.
Said’s intention is to let the form take hold without interference, unfettered
as though in a dream, so that it can naturally evolve with absolute freedom.
This painting rings an alarm bell in us about the apparent stability of
previous stages in Said’s work. It shows its own crisis within its vertical
frame, as it continually advances towards the background, where light rekindles
the brush strokes. The painting shows the crisis of the contemporary subject –
a subject which has to look beyond projects under tutelage and guided by
others. The result of this evolution is a progressive change which can already
be observed in the transparency of the compositions at the end of the
exhibition.
Once he has developed the elements that conform to his world, Said
Messari knows exactly how to integrate his authentic references in everything
that he does. Besides that, he has also set out to on an unending journey,
using the experience of colour and shadow zones, to name tradition so that he
can rediscover it.
… GENUINE CONTRIBUTIONS…
Maria Luisa Borras
About the exhibition, The
first exhibition of contemporary Arabic painters in the Museum of Archaeology,
Salamanca.
Newspaper La Vanguardia, 3rd June 1984.
… and now we come to the painter from Tetuan, Said Messari, who makes
one of the most original contributions to the exhibition. We already know Said
Messari through his illustrations of the poem of Nizar Qabbani, Diary of a
city called