Fez — The show anchors the Institut français du Maroc’s 2025–2026 cultural season and celebrates three decades of creation with a slate of new works.
Inaugurated on October 31 in a ceremony attended by France’s Ambassador Christophe Lecourtier, the exhibition runs through December 31, 2025, and blends signature pieces with fresh installations that point to Lahlou’s next chapter.
Speaking on site, Lahlou stressed that the exhibition looks forward as much as it looks back. “It is not only a retrospective, about 80% of the works are new,” he said in an interview with MWN.
Visitors move from the Symbiosis piece at the entrance to a renewed Oryx White, before encountering the immersive Afrina Zina installation.
The sequence lays out a throughline in form, material, and color while signaling an active studio practice.
Lahlou also set out his focus for the years ahead. He wants sculpture and installation to live beyond the gallery, in streets and shared spaces. “I want to work more and more on sculpture and installations,” he said, citing ongoing urban design work such as bus shelters and benches. The aim is to let design shape daily routines, not only special occasions.
A Moroccan voice with global reach
Lahlou earned his diploma at the Académie Charpentier in Paris in 1995 and built a global profile from there. Milan became a key stage for the designer. In 2011, Interni listed him among the top 15 emerging designers during Salone del Mobile. He later founded Africa Design Award and Africa Design Day to spotlight new talent across the continent.
In 2018 he co-curated Salone Satellite’s Africa–Latin America showcase with the Campana brothers at the invitation of Marva Griffin. In 2025 he served on the Salone Satellite Awards jury led by Paola Antonelli of MoMA.
For Lahlou, these milestones support a larger claim. Design is not decoration. It is a tool for development that links crafts, industry, services, and territorial branding. “Design is a key of development,” he told MWN, adding that strategy and vision matter as much as form. He pointed to Italy as a working model and noted rising design agendas in Korea, China, and Gulf countries.
A historic venue and emerging talents
Galerie de la Croix sits within the Institut français and the Consulate General of France in Tangier. The site has hosted generations of artists and remains a central node for cultural exchange.
Lahlou calls it a mythic place and uses the setting to widen the lens. He invited emergent voices to join the show, including contemporary artist Amine Asselman, designer-architect Selma Lazrak, and painter Hassana Lahlou. A large canvas by Lahlou, created for the occasion, anchors that dialogue.
Quotations line the walls like quiet captions. Passages from Charles de Gaulle and Paul Éluard frame ideas of chance, choice, and rendezvous. Lahlou noted a striking overlap of dates.
The October 31 opening coincided with the UN vote on the Moroccan Sahara. The moment, he said, underlined how art and civic life often move in parallel.
What visitors will see
“Constellations” mixes sculpture, installation, and design objects into a single arc. The works use vivid color and clear lines, with a material palette that ranges from metal to composite. Forms echo flora, fauna, and abstract geometry. The goal is to create an experience rather than a catalogue. “Come to feel the spirit and the constellations,” Lahlou told MWN. That invitation matches the layout, which reads like a walk through chapters rather than a timeline on a wall.
The designer also uses the space to map his path. Key dates and recognitions sit on one panel, from early features in Paris and Milan to recent juried roles and commissions. The panel cannot hold it all, he joked, but it shows a steady line of projects that link Morocco to global circuits.
Be sure to catch “Constellations: Back to the Future” is open at Galerie Delacroix, before it leaves at years-end. Lahlou says the exhibition is set to tour other cities in 2026.
