Hicham Gardaf

Hicham Gardaf (b. 1989, Tangier, Morocco) is a Moroccan artist based in London who works in photography and film. His subjects are time, place and transformation, and landscapes shaped by displacement and urbanisation. He makes still photographs and moving image works through slow, observational processes.

He first photographed his own neighbourhood and the people who lived there over several years. The series Intersections (2014 onward), Provisional Structures (2015 onward) and The Red Square (2015 onward) followed. They look at newly transformed communities in Moroccan suburbs and at unplanned suburban structures. His film In Praise of Slowness follows the bleach sellers, or vendeurs de javel, of Tangier. In static shots it traces their supply chain and street calls against the city's fast urbanisation and industrialisation. In 2022 he received a commission from Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA, Bordeaux.

He studied at Open School East, Margate. His solo exhibitions include Excursion at Fondation Abderrahman Slaoui, Casablanca (2016), and La pelouse est mon dernier refuge at Galerie Delacroix, Tangier (2018). Artists Support, London, showed The Red Square (2022) and In Praise of Slowness (2023). Group exhibitions include Histoire(s) contemporaine(s) at the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (2015), and Africa Is No Island at MACAAL, Marrakech (2018). He also showed in Moviment at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2023). His films were screened at the 74th Berlinale and the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (2024). He received the Bourse du Talent from the Bibliothèque nationale de France (2016) and was shortlisted for the Paul Huf Award at Foam, Amsterdam (2024). He took up a residency at the Cité internationale des arts, Paris, in 2026. His work is in the collections of Fondazione MAST, Bologna, the Bibliothèque nationale de France and MACAAL, Marrakech.