Written by Arthur Debsi

Born in 1982 in Paris to a Moroccan father and a French mother, Leila Alaoui moved with them to Marrakech when she was 6 years old. She spent her youth there, enrolling at French educational establishments including the École Auguste Renoir, and the Lycée Victor Hugo[1]. Then, she went to the United States where she studied photography, social sciences, and cinema at The City University of New Yok. Back in Morocco in 2008, she divided her life and work between Paris, Marrakech and Beirut, where she opened with her Lebanese partner and videographer Nabil Canaan, an art center called Station in an abandoned factory in 2013[2].

The development of the contemporary cultural and artistic scene occurring from North Africa to the Middle East, encouraged Leila Alaoui to come back to her country of origin. However, instead of being enclosed in a studio, she preferred to travel all around the regions during three years. For example, she traveled in the mountainous area of the Middle Atlas. Through her multiple trips, she discovered the richness of the landscapes as well as the lifestyle and cultures of the numerous ethnic groups. These encounters led her to produce a series of photographs entitled ‘Les Marocains’ (‘The Moroccans’) in which she captured the life-size portraits of local people. Contrasting with the black background, the models were wearing colorful traditional clothes from their respective communities. Through these intense portraits, she questioned herself on the construction of identity, and particularly positioned herself against the postcolonial representations of Morocco and the Arab world. The pictures appear to be a real anthropological work which bare witness of a heritage in danger of extinction due to the globalization.   

Alaoui considered herself to be a militant more than an artist[3]. Indeed, she was also touched by the phenomenon of immigration from young Moroccan people, leaving everything behind them to reach the European continent for a better future. For her research, she went to sub-Saharan Africa and met some of these people, listening to their hopes and fears[4]. Again, she took inspiration from this human experience, and executed another series of photographs named ‘No Pasara’ whose one edition is part of the Dalloul Art Foundation’s collection. The choice of the title refers to the political Spanish slogan ‘No Passaran’, ‘They shall not pass’, said in 1936 by the supporters of the Second Spanish Republic against the nationalists led by president Francisco Franco (1892-1975). From 1931 to 1939, the Second Spanish Republic possessed territories located in Western Sahara (now south Morocco), which were later returned. Leila Alaoui, consequently, connected a historical past event to a current context, both linking Europe and Africa. In the work No Pasara (2008), she shot a black and white photography of a young man lying on his back, on a rickety boat. The latter is stationary, the sea doesn’t move, and the model seems to float on the water. The time is suspended, and she tried to translate the expectations and the dreams of the immigrant – an example among others, lost in his thoughts. The set of lights, which illuminates a part of his face, indicates a glimmer of hope, but a feeling of uncertainty is also present. Alaoui showed how the utopian idea of Europe is strongly integrated in the African imaginary. This is another approach of considering the notion of borders, which separate the spaces, the populations, and expresses the different points of view upon the others.

An old childhood friend of Leila Alaoui’s visited her while she was documenting the conditions of immigrants in Sub-Sahara. She found the photographer cooking dinner for more than forty migrants in her own home.    

Using photography and video, Leila Alaoui played on the boundary between documentary and plastic arts. Especially that she always aimed to get as close as possible to reality in order to tackle the issues of today’s world. In 2011, she visited some camps in Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq which gather refugees from the Syrian crisis and who had fled the violent conflict, and destruction. In 2015, she imagined a video project ‘Crossings’ tackling the psychological consequences on the migrants who crossed the Mediterranean Sea. Alaoui embodies the type of a new generation of Arab artists, shared by two identities, cultures, and countries. Some are effectively from migrant families, and they practice art to create, demonstrate or denounce the complexity of living together. Thus, they simultaneously affirm their personal commitments.

In January 2016, while working on a Women’s Rights project for Amnesty International in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Leila Alaoui was caught in the crossfire of a terrorist attack. She was hospitalized, and three days later, died of a heart attack in the hospital at the young age of 33.

[1] Mbog, Raoul. “Victime De L'attaque Au Burkina, Leila Alaoui, Figure Rayonnante De La Jeune Photographie.” Le Monde.fr. Le Monde, January 19, 2016. https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2016/01/19/deces-de-leila-alaoui-figure-rayonnante-de-la-jeune-photographie_4850015_3212.html.

[2]“Station Fête Ses Trois Ans !” AgendaCulturel. Accessed May 14, 2020. https://www.agendaculturel.com/article/Musique_Station_fete_ses_trois_ans.

[3] Stevan, Caroline. “Leïla Alaoui, Le Talent Généreux.” Le Temps. Le Temps SA, March 7, 2016. https://www.letemps.ch/culture/leila-alaoui-talent-genereux.

[4] Polledri, Claudia. “Leila Alaoui, No Pasara, Musée Des Beaux-Arts De Montréal. Du 16 Janvier Au 7 Mai 2017 – Ciel Variable.” Érudit. Les Productions Ciel variable, June 1, 2017. https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/cv/2017-n106-cv03099/85694ac/. [P.88]

Sources

Kugel, Hannah. “Leila Alaoui: An Artist to Remember.” Leila Alaoui. Accessed May 14, 2020. https://universes.art/en/nafas/articles/2016/leila-alaoui.

Mbog, Raoul. “Victime De L'attaque Au Burkina, Leila Alaoui, Figure Rayonnante De La Jeune Photographie.” Le Monde.fr. Le Monde, January 19, 2016. https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2016/01/19/deces-de-leila-alaoui-figure-rayonnante-de-la-jeune-photographie_4850015_3212.html.

Polledri, Claudia. “Leila Alaoui, No Pasara, Musée Des Beaux-Arts De Montréal. Du 16 Janvier Au 7 Mai 2017 – Ciel Variable.” Érudit. Les Productions Ciel variable, June 1, 2017. https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/cv/2017-n106-cv03099/85694ac/.

Stevan, Caroline. “Leïla Alaoui, Le Talent Généreux.” Le Temps. Le Temps SA, March 7, 2016. https://www.letemps.ch/culture/leila-alaoui-talent-genereux.

“Station Fête Ses Trois Ans !” AgendaCulturel. Accessed May 14, 2020. https://www.agendaculturel.com/article/Musique_Station_fete_ses_trois_ans.