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The Outsider Art Movement of Morocco
- Souza
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
In Essaouira, where the Atlantic breeze curls through ancient alleyways and the sun settles over terracotta rooftops, a quiet kind of magic is unfolding with the flick of a paintbrush or a quiet chisel of wood. This isn't your typical art scene—no white walls, no perfectly curated bios, no art-school polish. Instead, it's raw, vibrant, and wildly human. This is Morocco’s outsider art movement—honest, untrained artists quietly rewriting the rules of art.
In the city and surrounding Berber regions, artists like Mohamed Babahoum, Mostafa El Hadar, Abdelaziz Baki, Ali Maimoun, and Khadija El Fahli are reshaping what Moroccan art can look like. Their work is instinctive, folkloric, and deeply personal—woven with memories, symbols, and surreal imagination.
Many began creating later in life, drawing not from textbooks but from memory, movement, music, and myth. Their materials are often improvised—cardboard boxes, furniture, goatskin, scrap wood—and their work pulses with life.
Why outsider art matters
Outsider art—or Art Brut, as dubbed by French artist Jean Dubuffet—is created outside of the mainstream art world. It’s free from formal training, academic pressure, and market trends. And that’s what makes it so powerful. These artists aren’t concerned with fitting in—they’re speaking directly from their lived experience, often using whatever materials they can find.
It’s art that feels close to the earth and far from ego. It opens up space for voices that have been ignored or excluded—older artists, neurodivergent creators, women, people from rural or working-class backgrounds—and shows that creativity doesn’t need permission.
In Essaouira, a city shaped by waves of migration, music, and creativity, the outsider art scene has found fertile ground. These Souiri artists are “unclassifiable,” their "Naive" style work overflowing with curves, trance-inducing colour, and symbolism. Slowly, the world is beginning to notice.
Take Mostafa El Hadar, for instance. A visionary in every sense. His large-scale, dream-soaked compositions are made using Indian ink on goatskin and canvas, bringing a layered texture that feels ancient, almost ritualistic. His figures float through surreal landscapes, suspended between the earthly and the spiritual. These are works that don’t just hang—they hover in the imagination.
And there’s Mohamed Babahoum, who didn’t start drawing until his 70s—and initially passed his work off as his grandson’s. Now, at almost 90 years old, he proudly signs them as his own. His scenes of rural Morocco are whimsical and rooted: goats in trees, camel rides, marketplaces filled with movement and spirit.
Ali Maimoun conjures anthropomorphic forms and ritual energy. His canvases and sculpture hum with Berber symbolism and African influence. Often large scale, his work contains that which can’t be put into words—only felt.
Then there’s Abdelaziz Baki, his studio full with fantastical beasts—part-bird, part-fish, part-dream. He paints on furniture, chipboard, anything he can find. His work, with its dots and protective eyes, feels like a joyful incantation. His pieces are talismans as much as they are artworks.
And don’t forget Khadija El Fahli, based in Rabat, who offers another take—her work is self-taught but steeped in memory, filled with the symbols and atmosphere of her Moroccan childhood. Her pieces feel like stories passed down by candlelight.
These artists, once largely unknown, are now stepping into the light. The 2021 exhibition Outsiders/Insiders? at MACAAL (Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden, Marrakech) showcased the richness of Essaouira’s outsider scene—including works by Mohamed Tabal, Ali Maimoun, Regragui Bouslai, and Abdelmalek Berhiss. The show celebrated how this small coastal town became a creative crossroads—fertile ground for art that flows between tradition and dream.
Want to see it for yourself?
Essaouira isn’t just a city—it’s a living gallery. Over the past few decades, it’s quietly become an artistic mecca. It all kicked off when Danish art enthusiast Frederic Damgaard fell in love with the soulful works of local farmers and fishermen. He opened the town’s first gallery in 1988, nurturing what would become one of Morocco’s most magical art scenes.
Souza recommends heading to...
Le Real Mogador: Once the Italian Consulate, now a dreamy artists’ residence and cultural centre, this beautiful building is an art piece itself and has work spread over multiple floors. With exhibitions, poetry nights, Gnaoui music shows, and more, this space isn't to be missed. - Le Real Mogador | Instagram, Facebook | Linktree
Kasbah Gallery: A magnificent 18th-century riad packed with everything from naive paintings to surrealist dreamscapes, Berber calligraphy to sculptural oddities. With 11 treasure-filled rooms, it’s a time capsule of Souiri creativity. - Maroc | Galerie La Kasbah
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