From Larache to London
After a childhood in the Moroccan town of Larache, Hassan Hajjaj grew up in London in the 1980s, at the heart of a protest and multicultural ferment driven by reggae, dub and hip-hop. From this culture of collage and remix he drew an unpretentious practice of fashion, design and photography, which he learned on his own. In the manner of the Malian photographers Malick Sidibé and Seydou Keïta, he has his friends pose, whom he sometimes took care to dress, in front of colourful backdrops. Revealing the artist's personal archives and approach, the exhibition My Rock Stars traces Hassan Hajjaj's diasporic journey, with music as a vector of communication and emotion.
Gnawa Connection
From the 1990s onward, Hassan Hajjaj began a body of work with the gnawa community, immortalising its oldest masters. Born from the meeting of African, Arab and Amazigh heritages, gnawa culture is an ancestral spiritual and musical tradition, today rehabilitated as a symbol of diversity and cultural resistance in Morocco. The powerful energy of the gnawa master musicians never ceases to flow through his work. Through photography, he makes them the figures of a counterculture, running against any folklorisation.
La fabrique des images : Andy Wahlou
Nicknamed "Andy Wahlou" by his friend Rachid Taha, in homage to Andy Warhol, in a play on the Tamazight word walou (nothing at all), Hassan Hajjaj blurs clichés in a collision between African culture of salvage and pop culture of the détournement of consumer society's objects. The framing of his photographs is a play with traditional architectural elements, notably the mashrabiya. Hassan Hajjaj has developed a genuine protocol in preparing his "Rock Stars": glasses, socks, hats, accessories, but also made-to-measure clothing. The photo sessions, often taken in natural light, are generally accompanied by real live music concerts, like a festive ritual session. The hanging extends into the permanent collection, where objects and works by Hassan Hajjaj collide with the Museum's instruments in a joyfully irreverent approach.
Synergies sonores et visuelles
A forerunner of oriental electro in France, the group Acid Arab has composed unprecedented music to accompany the exhibition and extend its energy. Blending ancestral rhythms, techno pulses, punk energy, disco and rap, their sonic creation celebrates the musical heritages of North Africa and the Middle East.