Fatime Zahra Morjani

Fatime Zahra Morjani (b. 1971) is a Moroccan visual artist based in Rabat. Trained as an architect, she lived and worked between Morocco, Ethiopia and Poland before returning to Morocco, an experience that profoundly shaped her relationship with landscape, territory and the narratives embedded within them.

Working across painting, drawing, installation and experimental photography, Morjani explores the relationship between land, living matter and memory. Central to her practice is the concept of “Landscape Taxidermy”, through which she examines the forms of domination imposed upon landscapes and the natural world, and considers plants as witnesses and carriers of history. Organic materials and natural processes frequently enter her work, creating a dialogue between transformation, preservation and disappearance.

Morjani began exhibiting internationally in Warsaw in 2010 and has since presented her work across Morocco, Europe and Africa. Recent highlights include exhibitions and residencies in Brussels, Madrid and France, as well as participation in the Kinshasa Biennale, 1-54 Marrakech and Paris Internationale. In Morocco, her work has been exhibited at institutions and venues including the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, the National Library of the Kingdom of Morocco and Fondation TGCC.

Her work forms part of the permanent collection of the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rabat, as well as the collections of Fondation Blachère, Fondation TGCC, Fondation Banque Populaire, Amari de Pauw Collection and Dar El Kitab, alongside private collections.

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Where do you feel at home and happy?

In my studio. A green island in the middle of Rabat, dense with plants and silent. It was built by Patrice de Mazières, the architect I worked with from my student years onward, who was my mentor and my friend.

When did you know you would become an artist?

I wanted to be an artist as a child. Architecture came instead, because it was considered the serious choice. In 2003 I lost my closest friend in a car accident, and I painted le tableau de deuil, the mourning painting. That is when I knew. It is in my living room, more than twenty years later.

What inspires you and your work?

Plants are the characters in my work. What inspires me is change. The explosion and the tragedy in it, and the catharsis that comes after. A heavy sky, and light arriving from below, which is as divine as the light from above. Myths and rituals inspire me, and the stories they carry.

If you were not an artist, what would you be?

A writer. I write already, alongside the work, and I would give it all my time.

Who are your favourite painters?

Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi, for the black ground and the light that arrives from below. Rothko and Fouad Bellamine, who make colour carry tragedy. Ahmed Cherkaoui and Anselm Kiefer, who put matter into the picture. Kendell Geers, who turns bullet holes into flowers, so that the violence sits inside something that looks tender.

Fatime Zahra Morjani

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