Aassmaa Akhannouch
Marocco
By combining painting and photographic printing, Aassmaa Akhannouch (born 1973, Marocco) 's slightly faded and blurred images acquire a pictorial quality that emphasises their nostalgic character. The images oscillate between the decisive moment of the photographic act and the timelessness of a cyanotype. They are narrative and reminiscent of the past.The strong expressiveness of the images goes far beyond the autobiographical and takes on a universal dimension by appealing to the personal memories of the audience.
Courtesy of Galerie Esther Woerdehoff• SERIES •
The House That Still Lives Within Me
As a child, I lived in a red house. The “red house” was my address.
I had to go back there to empty it, as it was about to be sold. The house still contains a few pieces of furniture, three plum trees, four orange trees, and my entire childhood.
I walk through the garden; it is not as large as I remember it. It is the eve of the celebration, and my mother is making gazelle horns. It is summer, and the enormous living-room window is wide open. There are books everywhere, but at night no one read children’s stories to me — they were told to me, because a very long time ago, the most extraordinary things could still happen…
For the celebration, I will have a ribbon in my braid. I will try not to play too much in the morning so as not to ruin my shoes, but by the afternoon I will have forgotten that they are new. I will watch my mother doing her hair in front of the mirror; perhaps she will wear her pale blue caftan…
I want to keep this house as it was on the eve of the celebration, in that eternal summer — submerged, asleep — because it has never ceased to be my address.
