The 16th edition of the Sharjah Biennial will take place from February 6 to June 15, 2025, under the theme "To carry", bringing together the work of 140 artists, including M’barek Bouhchichi.
Building a decolonial archive of intertwined material and literary cultures, M’barek Bouhchichi focuses on embodied histories and the liberating poetics of Négritude in his home country, Morocco, as well as in other regions of North Africa.
Our voices are wounded (2024) consists of 40 vessels reminiscent of ancient pottery used to carry and store water. Representing different civilizations and eras, these ceramic works are engraved with poetic fragments in minoritized languages, resisting colonial monolingualism and the violence of empires.
The seven works from Poetry must not perish. For then, where would the hope of the world be – Léopold Sédar Senghor(2023) draw inspiration from the writings of the Senegalese poet, thinker, and political leader referenced in the title. M’barek Bouhchichi transforms the tribulum, an ancient agricultural tool used for threshing grain, into a slate inscribed with Tunisian revolutionary poetry in Braille, thus invoking the persistence of haptic memory and the power of opacity in the face of the blindness of imperial history.
