As part of its MACAAL Hors les Murs (Off-Site) programme, the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL) is curating Le temps d’un battement de cil (In the Blink of an Eye), a solo exhibition by Moroccan photographer and filmmaker Daoud Aoulad-Syad. The exhibition will be on view from 17 June to 31 August 2026 at the Galerie Delacroix of the French Institute of Morocco, as part of the inaugural edition of Photo Tanger, an international photography festival. The exhibition is organised in collaboration with the French Institute of Morocco and supported by Fondation Alliances, a partner of the festival.
For more than 45 years, Daoud Aoulad-Syad has developed a photographic practice deeply rooted in Moroccan popular culture. Street performers, travelling entertainers, fairground workers and ordinary people occupy a central place in his work, shaping a visual narrative attentive to everyday gestures, encounters and the subtle forms of presence that animate public space.
Renowned for his highly expressive black-and-white analogue photography, the artist reveals a less frequently exhibited aspect of his practice through a selection of colour works. Bringing together thirty-six images, twenty-four of which have never before been printed, the exhibition offers a fresh perspective on his long-standing exploration of Morocco and its human landscapes. The number itself is significant: it echoes the thirty-six exposures of analogue film, a direct reference to the photographic processes to which the artist remains deeply attached.
Photographing from within rather than from a distance, Daoud Aoulad-Syad has built a body of work grounded in proximity. His images seek neither exoticism nor spectacle; instead, they reveal the density of everyday life, the constant flow of movement, moments of waiting, commercial activity and the ordinary forms of coexistence that shape social life.
Conceived by scenographer Sara Ayoub, with exhibition design production by Mouad Laalou, the exhibition transforms the Galerie Delacroix into a space for wandering inspired by the rhythms of the street. The visitor journey unfolds across three sections: The Square (Sa7a), dedicated to popular forms of gathering; The Alleyway (Znika), centred on scenes of everyday life and intimate movements; and The Market Gallery (Kisarya), exploring commercial dynamics and popular trading spaces. At the end of the exhibition, a film by Daoud Aoulad-Syad extends the visitor experience. Its inclusion reflects the way his practice has long moved between photography and cinema, two mediums shaped by the same attention to gestures, encounters and the rhythms of daily life. Through this new selection, In the Blink of an Eye offers a view of Morocco in the 1980s through the gestures, presences and rhythms of everyday life.
Press release from MACAAL
Image: Daoud Aoulad-Syad. Marrakech, Mai 1983. Image courtesy of Galerie 127 ©️ Daoud Aoulad-Syad
