Fez — Marrakech hosted the opening of the exhibition “Mohammed Ben Allal: Everyday Narratives” on Sunday at the Museum of Intangible Heritage Jamaa El-Fna, drawing Moroccan and international figures alongside art enthusiasts and specialists.
Organized by the Fondation Nationale des Musées in collaboration with the Musée Bank Al-Maghrib and the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden, the exhibition runs until May 25, 2026. It highlights the work of Mohammed Ben Allal, a self-taught painter born in Marrakech whose art celebrates the city’s popular memory and everyday life.
Painting as living archive
Conceived in dialogue with the mission of the Jamaa El-Fna museum, the exhibition explores the relationship between artistic creation and heritage. Ben Allal’s paintings are presented as a sensitive visual archive, documenting social rhythms, daily practices, and forms of sociability that have shaped Marrakech’s urban memory.
The exhibition path reveals narrative compositions in which each canvas functions as a fragment of memory. Ben Allal draws his iconography from ordinary scenes: family rituals, souks, popular festivities, artisanal practices, and most notably Jamaa El-Fna, a space of storytelling, transmission, and living heritage.
A distinctive pictorial language
Recognized for his singular place in contemporary Moroccan painting, Ben Allal developed a visual language marked by flattened perspectives, frontal figures, and a vivid color palette. This approach gives his compositions an expressive intensity reminiscent of oral storytelling and popular tales.
Speaking to Maghreb Arab Press, Mehdi Qotbi, president of the National Museum Foundation, said the exhibition perfectly illustrates art’s role as a living memory and a tool of transmission. He noted that Ben Allal offers a unique view of Marrakech, blending popular authenticity with pictorial modernity.
Former French Minister of Culture and president of the Arab World Instituite, Jack Lang, also praised the expressive strength of Ben Allal’s work, saying that despite its naïve style, it succeeds in capturing the essence of popular life and transforming it into a universal testimony.
Preserving the memory of Marrakech
According to the exhibition’s curatorial note, the goal is to magnify Marrakech’s memory through an artist who consistently sought to narrate ancestral scenes of the city through color and form. The exhibition is described as both moving and engaging, especially as it reflects the legacy of an artist devoted to celebrating popular life, traditions, and rituals.
Born in 1928 in Marrakech, Mohammed Ben Allal began painting at the age of 16. He passed away in 1995, leaving behind an original body of work now held in numerous private collections in Morocco, France, and the United States. Through this exhibition, his vision continues to offer a vivid, intimate portrait of Marrakech as lived, remembered, and passed on.
