In an ode to Elmarsa Gallery’s longstanding collaboration with Rachid Koraïchi, we would like to present an exhibition that revisits a collection of his work. On view from the 27th of February until the 25th of May, 2024, the exhibition will encompass a breadth of disciplines that Koraïchi has enmeshed into his practice, highlighting his abiding fascination with the creation of deeply layered seams. Showcasing the iconic site-specific installation comprising of Les Prieurs alongside Les Priants, the two towering polished bronze and green patina sculptures and a selection of the twenty-one unique Corten steel sculptures will fill the space, casting delicate and shifting shadows. Accompanying the sculptures will be a body of two-dimensional work ranging in medium and highlighting Koraïchi’ s ability to insight a moment of reflection to the onlooker. Draped along the lengths of the gallery’s three-meter walls will be the encased silk organza tapestries, embroidered with glyphs that are brought together to encapsulate the timeless themes of the changing seasons.
The complexity and depth of Rachid’ storytelling are seen throughout, as if a thread running through each idea. Demonstrating his desires and apt abilities for narration, Koraïchi’s alphabet of memory is anchored in the world of glyphs and cyphers, where he nurses his fascination for texts function, aesthetics and cultural significance. From a line of thinking that acknowledges the amputations that peoples face from their past identities, he draws from his Sufi heritage. Born into a writing civilization, Koraïchi speaks often of belonging entirely to writing, wanting to reveal the profound inner secrets of texts. With texts by great mystic poets and writers such as Rûmî, Ibn Arabi, Attar and Rabia Al Adawya often referenced in his work, Rachid Koraïchi has also collaborated with a number of contemporary poets and authors, among them Mahmoud Darwish, Mohamed Dib, Jamel Eddine Bencheikh, René Char, Nancy Huston and Michel Butor, creating intricately mapped out artwork through the writing’s inspiration.
“I make art for myself, for my own intellectual pleasure. I make unpredictable associations, dressing each sign in letters that prompt it to express its own internal rhythms”
Translated and edited from French by Gerard Houghton.
Text from SIGNS OF OUR TIMES: From Calligraphy to Calligraffiti
Press release from Elmarsa Gallery
Image: Rachid Koraichi. Nedjma- The four seasons. 2009. Silk embroidered organza, plexiglass. 304 x 152 x 7 cm (each). Image courtesy of Elmarsa Gallery
