Mahi Binebine

Mahi Binebine, born in Marrakech in 1959, is a painter, author and sculptor. He moved to Paris in 1980, where he completed his studies in mathematics and taught this subject for eight years. It was here that he engaged in his first artistic endeavours, before moving to New York in 1994 to devote himself to painting and writing. “The writing is done through small touches of the inside that create the images, while painting is the creation of the image which allows access to the inside,” he says.

Mahi Binebine’s work confronts the extremes present in the human condition through the exploration of binary themes: love and hate, peace and violence, hope and despair, tragedy and comedy. His canvases are primarily composed of anonymous figures that have been reduced to ambiguous silhouettes; their outlines are interwoven, displaying bodies that are inescapably connected. He creates compositions that are at once organic and geometric; figures are intertwined and either wrestle with, or embrace one another within an unsettling, hostile, and confining configuration.

In 2009 Binebine founded the Ali Zaoua Foundation with director Nabyl Ayouch. He has opened cultural centres in disadvantaged neighbourhoods across Morocco, in order to create a space for young people to reconcile with their social environment, while learning to express themselves through dialogue, as an alternative to violence.

Binebine has written several novels which have been translated into a dozen languages. His paintings and sculptures have been included in numerous exhibitions and biennials globally. His work can be found in the permanent collection of the Guggenheim Museum in New York and in other museums worldwide. In 2002, Binebine returned to his native Marrakech, where he currently lives and works.

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The 5 key questions

Get to know our artists little bit better through these five questions.

Where do you feel home and happy? 

Artists are often devoted to the inner life, and I feel mine is very rich, which gives me the freedom to be less concerned with reality - so you could say “I feel at home everywhere.” (laughs)

When did you know you would become an Artist?

I’ve always felt it. As a child I wanted to be a musician; then I was given a guitar, so I joined a band and began to imagine I might become the lead singer (laughs). Luckily I was dissuaded from this illusion, because I sing like a frog (wide, self-effacing smile). Then when I arrived in Paris, I was introduced to the Spanish writer Augustin Gomez-Arcos, and he understood that there was an artist in me. He encouraged me to write, and then he introduced me to the painters he knew. He brought me to their ateliers - showed me a world I wanted to belong to - and suddenly I knew what I wanted to be, I wanted to be an artist. Gomez had introduced me to the best people in his world, and it was not just one or two artists, it was a whole community. I met Alekos Facianos the Greek painter, and there was this great little bistro on Rue Mazarine in the 6eme arrondissement, Chez Albert, where we used to eat every night at a round table full of creatives. They used to tease me as I was working as a maths professor, earning about 6,000 francs a month, but clearly not very good with numbers as I was burning at least 3,000 of that at the restaurant! (laughter). Sitting at our table were journalists, art critics, writers, painters and poets, and I understood that this was the culture I belonged to, the arts, and so I began my life as an artist.

What inspires you and your work? 

As an artist from The Continent, from a place that is often misrepresented, I felt compelled to redress the narrative as a kind of Don Quixote on a journey of redemption. I wanted to try and fix what was wrong, a theme that is common amongst so many African artists, as there is just so much that is wrong, both at home and in how we are perceived globally. So I wrote novels on terrorism, on illegal immigration, on drugs, on the abuse of power; 12/13 books already on this struggle. My work as a painter comes from something more personal; some things are pre-verbal, and cannot be expressed in words. Some of this has to do with my brother, who was detained for 18 years in Tazmamart (pause). My feelings around this continue to affect me, so I paint against repression, I paint against the dictatorship we have endured in my homeland for more than 40 years.

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

A singer of course! (we both laugh) Julio Iglesias (laughs)! With a fantastic moustache like Dali (roars laughing). I really, truly wanted to be a singer, and at least I was a musician, a pretty good musician - good enough to make a career out of it. Then one day I was watching television with Augustine, who had escaped Franco’s dictatorship to live in Paris. There was this guy about 60-65 years of age, playing the guitar and he was dancing, so Augustine turns to me and says, “So you really wanted to be this guy?” I told him no, not anymore! (laughs)

Who are your favourite painters?

Impossible… It would be like asking me who my favourite writer is. I love hundreds (laugh) and each in their own, unique way. ( — So what author do you go to when you want to read a really good book?) I reread books all the time, in particular Dostoyevsky because he writes about the human soul, and really understands what it means to be a human. I also love Knut Hamsun who is an extraordinary writer. I must reread one of his books every year; then there is Kafka - so many writers I admire. Like artists, it would be impossible to choose one. We cannot compare Picasso to Rodin or Bacon, so we cannot decide who is better. I like them all, in different ways. The one who impresses me the most is Picasso, because every time you have the feeling that you have discovered something, you realise that he found it already. I listen to his counsel and read his books - the way he thinks about painting is incredible - he invented modern art! Sometimes whilst painting, we create elements that really please us, so then we do everything to save them. But Picasso will tell you to destroy them, immediately. If you like it, destroy it and then you will make your painting (laughs). At first I fought to keep what I loved, and destroyed everything else (laughs). That is the genius of Picasso.

Mahi Binebine

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