DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM is pleased to present The Alis’ Narrative, the gallery’s third solo exhibition with Soufiane Ababri and the artist’s first solo show in Cologne. Opening during the week of ART COLOGNE, the exhibition will be on view at our new Cologne gallery at Roonstraße 108 from November 3, 2026, through January 30, 2027. An opening reception will take place on Friday, November 6, 6–9 PM.
Ababri’s practice draws on literature, cinema, music, and social and political histories to explore otherness, desire, and belonging. Weaving his own biography and heritage with a broader archive of queer cultural and intellectual references, his work questions how histories are written, foregrounding minor histories, personal memory, and intimate encounters. His ongoing series of colored-pencil drawings known as Bedworks are made while reclining in bed, deliberately shifting artistic production from the vertical space of the studio to the horizontal and private space of the bedroom. In doing so, Ababri turns intimacy and domesticity into sites from which to consider queer and migrant experience and the complexities of living between cultures.