Hamasāt al-Fajr

Loft Art Gallery has opened a new chapter in Casablanca. On 17 September 2026 the gallery, founded in 2009 by Myriem and Yasmine Berrada Sounni, inaugurated its new space in the Cité de l'Air area of Hay Hassani with Hamasāt al-Fajr, a group exhibition that runs until 18 October 2026. The Arabic title translates as Whispers of Dawn, and the gallery describes it as evoking 'a moment when something new begins to emerge from what already exists.'

The show gathers 21 artists whose work has shaped the gallery's programme over nearly two decades, and sets them in conversation across generations. Pioneers of the Casablanca School are here: Mohamed Melehi, Farid Belkahia and Mohamed Chabâa, who reshaped Moroccan art after independence, appear alongside Mohamed Hamidi and the painter Malika Agueznay, the subject of a solo show at the gallery earlier this year.

Younger voices carry the conversation forward. Belgian Moroccan photographer Mous Lamrabat, who is based in Belgium, brings his playful collisions of Moroccan dress and global brand culture, while Ivorian artist Joana Choumali, who is based in Abidjan and won the Prix Pictet in 2019, is joined by M'hammed Kilito, Mustapha Azeroual, Nassim Azarzar, Hiba Baddou, Amina Agueznay, Mehdi-Georges Lahlou and Elladj Lincy Deloumeaux, among others.

In the gallery's words, the exhibition brings together 'perspectives which have shaped the gallery's program' while expressing 'a first vision for the future.' Press coverage has framed it around memory, materials and cultural references, a fitting reading for a gallery that has long presented itself as a bridge between Morocco, the Arab world and Africa.

For anyone following the Moroccan scene, Hamasāt al-Fajr is both a reunion and a statement of intent: a chance to see the modernist foundations of Moroccan art beside the artists building on them today, in a new home for one of Casablanca's most established galleries. A catalogue accompanies the exhibition.