Radici

Radici,

Flour, pigments

700cm x 500 cm

Fabrica, Italy

2022

In Radici, Mohammed El Hajoui delves into a personal exploration of memory, rooted in his childhood in Morocco, family traditions, cultural rituals, and the spiritual fabric of his upbringing.

The installation is composed of two central elements: the carpet and the door.
The carpet symbolizes hospitality, it is a space that gathers people, inviting them to share meals, daily life, religious rituals, and ancestral celebrations. The door, as often in El Hajoui’s work, evokes the idea of passage, encounter, and transformation.

The carpet is entirely handcrafted using colored flour, with custom tools created specifically for the process. It echoes traditional practices, becoming a symbolic journey through time, an element that continues to hold cultural and religious significance.

The door recalls the concept of hospitality and takes on the role of a mihrab, a key architectural feature in Arab mosques, oriented toward the qibla, the direction of Mecca.

An integral part of the Radici project is a video installation curated by Carlos Casas at Fabrica research centre. This conceptual piece reveals the ephemeral nature of the flour carpet, emphasizing its fragility to the viewer.

Radici,

Flour, pigments

Frame performance

Fabrica, Italy

2022

In his performance Tawaf, the artist evokes the ritual act of devotion performed during the first day of Hajj: circling the Kaaba seven times in a counterclockwise direction.

Through this gesture, the work reflects on transformation, the kind that follows repetition and devotion. It becomes a meditation on time as a force that erodes and reshapes memory, culture, and artistic heritage.