Rabat – Abla Ababou gallery is set to unveil a new solo exhibition today, featuring sculptor Jamil Bennani.
Titled “Matières et tensions,” the show positions material as both subject and language, where control and release exist in constant negotiation.
Rather than presenting sculpture as a static form, Bennani treats it as a state of balance under pressure.
Wood, his primary medium, becomes a starting point rather than a boundary. From there, it stretches into unexpected conversations with plexiglas, steel, and stone, materials that resist and respond in equal measure.
The result is a body of work defined by contrast: opacity against transparency, weight against suspension, structure against breath.
Born into an artistic family, Bennani’s earliest encounters with creation were shaped by his father’s pictorial world.
That foundation later expanded through formal training in Belgium, at the Institut Saint-Luc, where he studied woodworking and sculpture before moving into interior architecture and design.
These disciplines did not remain separate in his practice; instead, they layered into a single visual vocabulary concerned with space, function, and emotional resonance.
Over time, however, design receded as sculpture took precedence. Bennani’s current work reflects this shift, less about utility, more about presence.
Each piece feels constructed but never closed, as if still negotiating its final form.
Precision remains central, but it is softened by an instinct for imbalance, for what escapes definition.
In a press statement, the artist describes his practice as a search for invisible links, stating, “My work explores tensions between matter and light, between what is anchored and what seeks to escape.”
