Mohamed Mourabiti

Mohamed Mourabiti was born in Marrakech in 1968 and lives and works in Tahannaout, at the foot of the Atlas. A self-taught painter, he makes mixed-media works on canvas and wood. He builds them from earth, tar, pigment, fabric and collage, applied in layers that he scrapes, covers and partly erases.

His subjects come from the places around him. Satellite dishes on Marrakech rooftops, the koubba, the mausoleum, the circle and the map recur across four decades, each pared down to a sign. A visit to the tomb of Ibn Arabi in Damascus led to the series Sur les traces d'Ibn Arabî, discussed by Salima Naji in 2007. In it, a dark block hovers against open sky. Later tondi carry the map of Africa.

In 2008 he held a residency at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris. Solo exhibitions include the Musée Henri-Martin, Cahors (2006), the Institut français in Rabat (2018) and the Fondation Musée Farid Belkahia, Marrakech (2025). La Galerie 38 in Casablanca staged his retrospective in 2026. His work is held by the Musée Mohammed VI d'Art Moderne et Contemporain in Rabat, the Kamel Lazaar Foundation in Tunis and FAAP in São Paulo. He founded the art space Al Maqam in Tahannaout and has made artist's books with Michel Butor and Abdelhak Serhane.