Rita Alaoui
Rita Alaoui
Born in 1972 in Rabat, Morocco — lives and works in Paris.
"Rita Alaoui’s approach is also part of a contemporary practice of ecological art, which seeks to collect and preserve—through artworks and installations that serve as a form of near-museological memory—forms of life that are at risk of disappearing due to ecosystem degradation."
Philippe Godin, June 2023
Rita Alaoui, born in Rabat in 1972, lives and works in Paris. A graduate of Parsons School of Design in New York, she develops a pictorial practice inspired by nature, organic textures, and the transformative processes of living matter. Fascinated by the power of nature and the healing properties of plants, she directs her approach toward the representation of a dreamlike, sacred, and restorative nature.
Although deeply influenced by the wild landscapes and the distinctive light of Morocco that accompanied her childhood, her work speaks to the universal, and her artworks present non-places and out-of-time settingsRita Alaoui blends various references, including the art of gardens, to which she gives an animistic dimension, evoking a certain sense of romanticism.
Initially a painter, Rita Alaoui has diversified her modes of creation, moving from painting to drawing, photography, installation, video performance, and the making of artist books. With a process that echoes the methodologies of botany or archaeology, she places at the core of her practice the collection, accumulation, and observation of objects found in nature. These are then meticulously arranged in the temple-like space of her studio, endowing them with an unexpected sense of sacredness or spirituality.
Her work now incorporates a performative dimension centered on care, inspired by ancestral knowledge, exploring healing and bodily memory through rituals, medicinal plants, and natural materials.
Rita Alaoui questions her role in relation to the silent matter of nature, seeking to reproduce its traces, rethink our connection to the wild world, and imagine links with the extraordinary.
Rita Alaoui’s paintings weave a dialogue between two worlds: terrestrial landscapes, inspired by her work on gardens, and aquatic depths, explored in her most recent pieces. While her early works capture the delicacy of vegetal and domestic spaces, her current creations plunge into the marine abyss, where organic forms and human traces coexist. This duality reveals a continuous quest for resilience and care, rooted in ancestral knowledge and a reflection on the interconnection between nature, the body, and memory.
Interested in the intimate and free relationship between writing and visual arts, and passionate about the artist's book as an object, Rita Alaoui also conducts research around the creation of artist books. In these works, she combines a plastic and aesthetic approach with simple, meditative writing, creating books in which each copy becomes a unique piece — and, in a way, sacred.
Rita Alaoui’s work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions, both nationally and internationally.
Philippe Godin is an art critic based in Paris and the founder of the journal *La Diagonale de l’Art*. La Diagonale de l’Art
1991 Foundation year, Penninghen – Académie Julian, Paris
1992–1994 — Parsons School of Design, Paris
1994–1997 — Parsons School of Design, Nova Iorque
2025
The Water Under My Skin, Galerie Siniya, Marrakech
2023
Le jardin Silencieux, Galerie Siniya, Marrakech
Paris International Art Fair, Think Tanger
2022
Orpin, Orangerie du Parc Prieuré, Conflans-Sainte-Honorine
2020
Demain Sera Beau, Galerie 127, Montreuil
Vos Rêves, Artefact, Paris
2019
Manifeste d’un Fossile, Galerie Boa, Paris
Anamorphia, Galerie Kulte, Rabat
2018
Vénus D’ailleurs, Galerie Villa Delaporte, Casablanca
2016
Objets Trouvés, Galerie Delacroix, Institut Français de Tanger
Objets Trouvés, Galerie Venise Cadre, Casablanca
2015
Objets Trouvés, The Ultra Laboratory, Casablanca
2014
De Battre Mon Coeur S’est Arrête, Galerie Venise Cadre, Casablanca
2024: Demain est annulé, Fondation EDF / Clermont-Ferrand; AKAA Art Fair (Galerie Anne de Villepoix); In the Blood (Tiwani Contemporary, Londres); 1:54 Art Fair (Galerie Siniya28, Marrakech); entre outras.
2023: Supra Nature, Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris; Sans Réserve, Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris
2019-2022: Bienal de Rabat; Artorium (Casablanca); 35000 Jovenes (Madrid); Zhengzhou Photo Festival (China); Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris); Dakar Biennale, entre outras.
2014-2018: Instituto do Mundo Árabe (Paris); MACAAL (Marrakech); Tourcoing; Sharjah Biennale; Brooklyn; Bruxelas; Marrakech Biennale, entre outras.
2025: L’écho des herbes, Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris
2024: Lawsonia Cataplasm Garden, Fondation EDF, Paris; Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris
2020: Demain Sera Beau, Éditions Al Manar (edição limitada e edição comum)
Libres Pensées d’une Plante Sauvage sur le Monde, Éditions Comme un Arbre
Yale French Studies nº137 & 138, Yale University Press
2016: The Alphabet Connection (com Anna-Sabina Zürrer)
2013: Do It In Arabic, Sharjah Art Foundation; Fragments de Vie Quotidienne, Éditions Al Manar
2025: The Mothership (Yto Barrada), Tânger
2023: Finalist, COAL Prize, Paris
2022: Finalist, Norval Sovereign African Art Prize, Cape Town
2019: Cité des Arts, Paris (6-month residency)
2017–2019: Arts Cabinet, Edimburgo (colaboração com Edward Hollis)
2023: Pigment making, Couleur Garance, Lauris
2024: Dye plants and textile techniques, Couleur Garance, Die
Educational Activities Selection
2024: Ateliê, Fondation EDF (Paris)
2022: MAC VAL (Vitry-sur-Seine)
2018-2020: Foresta Collective (Berlim); Académie Charpentier (Paris); Ecole Belge (Casablanca); entre outras
2025: Conversa com Lauren Hili, 1:54 Art Fair
2024: Com Adelaide Bannerman, Tiwani Contemporary, Londres
2014-2023: Institut du Monde Arabe; Museu da Caça e da Natureza; African Art Book Fair; Jaou Tunis; Museu de Sharjah
Fondation Blachère (France); MAC VAL (France); Institut du Monde Arabe (France); Yale University (USA); University of North Carolina (USA); Royal Library of the Netherlands; Palais Royal (Morocco); Société Générale Foundation (Morocco); Mohammed VI Museum, Rabat (Morocco)
2025: Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris (Lorén Elhili)
2024: RFI Internationale (entrevista); Audi x 1:54 Art Fair
2023: Philippe Godin
2020-2016: Pauline Lisowski, Pascale Obolo, Jérôme Migayrou, Sonia Recasens, entre outros.