Fez — The art gallery “L’Atelier 21” is hosting “At the Mercy of Light,” an exhibition by Tahar Ben Jelloun that brings together stained-glass works and paintings, shown for the first time in Morocco.
Widely known for his literary career, Ben Jelloun has also developed a sustained visual practice over the past several years.
This exhibition marks a new phase in that work, introducing stained glass as a central medium. Closely tied to transparency and illumination, the medium allows the artist to rethink color, form, and gesture through the physical presence of light.
From painting to stained glass
Running from January 27 to March 7, the exhibition brings together ten stained-glass works created from existing paintings, alongside a selection of canvases presented for the occasion. The shift from canvas to glass profoundly alters the visual experience. Instead of absorbing light, the surface allows it to pass through, transforming color into something fluid and unstable.
As a result, the compositions are never fixed. Shapes and tones shift depending on natural or artificial light, and even on changes in the sky outside. What was once a static image becomes a living surface, constantly reconfigured by its environment.
In the exhibition catalogue, Ben Jelloun traces the origins of the project to his collaboration with master glassmaker Philippe Brissy, based in Saumur, France. The process required nearly a year of work, experimentation, and technical adjustment to translate painted gestures into stained glass while preserving their expressive intensity.
Works shaped by their surroundings
The stained-glass pieces are conceived as works that respond directly to the space they inhabit. Their reading changes throughout the day as light shifts in intensity and direction. This variability is not incidental but integral to the project, inviting viewers to observe the works from multiple angles and at different moments.
The title, “At the Mercy of Light,” reflects this dependence. Light is not a neutral element but an active force that completes the work, altering perception and meaning over time.
A cross-disciplinary trajectory
Born in Fez in 1947, Ben Jelloun now divides his time between Paris, Tangier, and Marrakech. Alongside his literary output, his visual works have been exhibited and collected in Morocco and abroad. They are held in several public and private collections, including the Museum of Tangier and the Institute of the Arab World in Paris, as well as institutions in Spain and Italy.
With “At the Mercy of Light,” Ben Jelloun reinforces the continuity between his writing and visual practice. Both are grounded in attention to rhythm, silence, and transformation.
The exhibition offers Moroccan audiences an opportunity to engage with a lesser-known but deeply coherent dimension of an artist whose work continues to move across disciplines while remaining anchored in the same questions of perception and meaning.
