DEBAT IMAGINAIRE

he podcast is the outcome of a conversation between an artist, Mohssin Harraki, and an anthropologist, Tarek Elhaik, who are both fascinated by the life, oeuvre, and persona of the 12th century Cordoban polymath Ibn Rushd (Latin Averroes).  Haraki answers Elhaik’s question related to his neon installation Imaginary Debate in which the artist reanimates and illuminates a 13th century manuscript illustration featuring a conversation between Porphyry and Averroes.

ohssin Harraki graduated from the Institut National des Beaux-Arts of Tetouan, the Ecole Supérieure d’Art of Toulon and the Ecole Supérieure d’Art of Dijon.He participated in many exhibitions such as Genealogical Trees at l’Espace 150 x 295 in 2011 in Martil (Morrocco) and in group shows such as ” Mahatta ” at the cinémathèque of Tanger in 2010, Sentences on the Bank and other activities in 2010 in Amman (Jordan) and in ARTO-RAMA in Marseille, the videofestival Transmediale11 in Berlin, the Independent Short Films and Media art Festival in Cairo. Mohssin Harraki creates drawings, videos, installations, photography and performances; all are questioning strong social and political issues. The artist is just as well examining the cultural construction as the post-colonial consequences and the collective imaginary. Social and cultural contexts that are unfamiliar to him are also part of his research. He’s interested in the cultural and political history of Morocco since the proclamation of Independence and to the themes such as the genealogy and transmission of power, the birth of nationalistic ideology and the formation of the collective conscience. The artists proceeds in general by creating a dialogue, with his peers, artists or with people he meets in the streets, as with the intervention “Fasting” in 2011 in Toulon. In his installations he explores themes of the book and the written word that he diverts out of their traditional contexts. Overall his art projects aim to explore the mechanisms of cultural construction, the constitution of memory and the collective imaginary.