Mounir Ayache

Born in 1991, the French-Moroccan artist Mounir Ayache invites us to rethink our view of the political and social realities of the Arab world through his technological creations.

By using the codes of science fiction to which he blends family stories and the imaginary reappropriation of Arab experiences and identities, he is part of the unofficial trend of Arab Futurism, influenced by the Afrofuturism of the 1990s, which is inspired by fiction to propose alternative narratives. Mounir Ayache mimics the representations of the Other and the Stranger in Western fiction, and uses new technologies to produce and transmit his ideas, blurring the boundaries between contemporary art and entertainment.

His residency project revolves around the character of Hassan al-Wazzan (1494-1555) who became Johannes Leo de Medicis. under Pope Leo X, known as “Leo Africanus”, the main character of the novel bearing his name written by Amin Maalouf in 1986. In 1525, at the request of the Pope, he wrote “La Cosmographia de Affrica”, which was to serve as a reference for describing sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa, and which would nourish the European imagination, for whom this region was unknown.

Taking the 1525 manuscript as a starting point, his writing work consists of creating a science-fiction story set in the year 2500, in which the main character, inspired by Hassan al-Wazzan, recounts the exchanges between Africa and Europe, summoning up fictional geopolitical and ecological issues connected with the city of Rome. This story will result in the production of a series of sculptures activating, by means of an augmented reality device, digital content that will be superimposed on reality.

© Daniele Molajoli