Vibrant VOGUE, The Arab Issue opening at Fotografiska Stockholm

Hassan Hajjaj
VOGUE, The Arab Issue
14 February–7 June 2020 Fotografiska Stockholm

Full of vibrant colours, speed, and rhythmic swey, the Moroccan roots are clearly visible in Hassan Hajjaj's work, mixed with contemporary London expressions. He is an artist that always creates while listening to music, preferably out in the street. In VOGUE, the Arab Issue at Fotografiska, in collaboration with Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, several of his photographic series are shown, often unique, often with frames made from anything, from bicycle tires to cans with Arabic logos. The title alludes to how he is using Moroccan friends, or friends of friends, and designs to create his fashion photographs, not ones flown in from the West. Something for a certain fashion magazine to consider...

If you don't have tickets to the cinema, you can still check out the photographs from the movie on the poster. If you don't have your own camera, you can still borrow your friend's. If you have your own drive to express yourself artistically, you have everything you need. 
Growing up during the 60s in the city of Larache, Morocco, Hassan Hajjaj encountered photography in three different ways: street-photographers who took pictures of people and then sold them the photographs, beach-photographers who captured the beach-life, and snapshots from movies printed on posters. During this time, his father lived and worked in London while the family was still in Morocco, but in the beginning of the 70s Hassan, his sisters, and his mother moved to his father, and it was time for an entirely new chapter in young Hassan's artistic life.

Photo: © Hassan Hajjaj, Dior XL (2012)

“For me it began when I, as a twelve-year-old newcomer in London, wanted to show my friends something from my native country. They came from places like the Caribbean, Brazil, and India, places brimming with cultural belonging familiar to everyone: reggae, Pelé, samba, calypso, rai-music, and more. I wanted them to know that I was also from a cool place, so I created things, graffiti, and scenarios, that I shot with a borrowed camera. Things that mixed the Moroccan with the vibrant London that we all lived in. But it was in 1989 when I bought myself a used Pentax from Zak Ove that everything really took off”, Hassan Hajjaj says. Today he is represented at, among other places, Brooklyn Museum in New York, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, and Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

The exhibition VOGUE, The Arab Issue at Fotografiska is a collaboration with Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris. By borrowing, transferring, interchanging, and mixing expressions, Hajjaj explores questions like that of cultural appropriation – to take expressions belonging to one culture and use them in another, in a way that can be perceived as demeaning. 

Photo: © Hassan Hajjaj, Untitled (2000)

“In Hajjaj's imagery, which combines fashion, Pop-Art, and politics, the Moroccan inheritance is an ever-present element. This self-taught and multifaceted artist, mostly known for his photography, has established himself as one of Morocco's most internationally prominent artists. To now exhibit his work at Fotografiska is really exciting”, says Emilie Ackerman, exhibition producer Fotografiska International.

Hajjaj's art is absolutely bursting with the joy of colours and life, patterns, energy, rhythm, and ingenuity. All imaginable materials from Morocco, together with ones from contemporary London, are used to create a mix that instantly signals that this is a work by Hassan Hajjaj: photographer, and artist – by profession and in life. Whether it's photography, installation, fashion with a touch of Pop Art, interior design, or furniture made from recycled Moroccan everyday objects, they're all imbued with his typical expression of rhythmic swey – preferably hip hop and reggae. A unique piece with a frame made from cans with Arabic logos can capture your attention and make you smile, but may also raise a question. 

Photo: © Hassan Hajjaj, Gretchen (2012)

“The curiosity to just try things, and make mistakes without holding on to prestige, are some of the benefits of being self-taught. To affect people, and initiate discussions and conversations is probably my strongest motivator. It's not that I always have specific answers, but in a living culture questions need to be asked, to make us think, and think again”, says Hassan Hajjaj, who nowadays lives in both London, and in Marrakech, where he has a store that doubles as a place to hang out with friends.

The fact that Hajjaj is often called “the Andy Warhol of Marrakech”, is one of those things that is worth thinking twice about.

“The expression appeared in an article sometime in the 90s. On the one hand, it's flattering to be mentioned in relation to a legend like this, on the other hand it might be questionable that when lifting up and defining something from Northern Africa, or what’s so called Third World, it automatically needs to be related to a Western success...”

Photo: © Hassan Hajjaj, Malikah Legs (2015)

The title VOGUE, The Arab Issue alludes to an experience that Hajjaj had when he, as an English-speaker, helped a friend in whose house a big fashion magazine had a photo-shoot. He realised that none of the participants – makeup-artists, models, photographers, and more – had anything to do with Northern Africa. Everyone was flown in, and the beautiful backyard was only an exotic backdrop. That's when he decided to have his own fashion-shoot packed with local models, design, and cultural context: now it's one of the series that he proudly exhibits at Fotografiska. 

“Culture is ever-changing. Like, for example, the wearing of veils: my grandmother didn't, my mother does, but not my sisters. Symbols are transformed by their context. That veils are sometimes seen in my pictures might be something else worth pondering...”.

Footnote: The press pictures is not allowed to be cropped, just for press publishing during and till the end of the art fair period at Fotografiska.

Artist Bio:

Born in Larache, Morocco, in 1961, Hassan Hajjaj moves to London in the 70’s. He since leaves and works in-between Morroco and the UK. Heavily influence by the club, hip-hop, and reggae scenes of London as well as by his North African heritage, Hajjaj is a self-taught and thoroughly versatile artist whose work includes portraiture, installation, performance, fashion, and interior design.

Turning to photography in the late 80s, Hajjaj is a master portraitist, often styling his models who are friends, musicians, and artists, or strangers. These colorful and engaging portraits combine the visual vocabulary of contemporary fashion photography and pop art, as well as the studio photography of African artists, in an intelligent commentary on the influences of tradition in the interpretations of high and low branding and the effects of global capitalism. Now his bodies of work include installation and videography.

Hassan's work is in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Newark Museum, New Jersey; Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Guggenheim Museum, Abu Dhabi; Maxxi Museum, Rome; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Farjam Collection, Dubai; Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris; Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Tunisia; and more. 

Hajjaj was awarded the New York PULSE Prize 2014, Sovereign African Art Prize 2011, and was shortlisted for Jameel Prize in 2009. 

The press pictures is just for press publishing during the exhibition period at Fotografiska 

Margita Ingwall
Head of PR
+46(0)70-456 14 61
margita.ingwall@fotografiska.se

Facts about Fotografiska: Fotografiska Stockholm is not only the world’s most esteemed museum dedicated to the world of photography. The concept also contains an internationally awarded restaurant elected “the Museum Restaurant of the Year 2017”, as well as inspiring event spaces, an acclaimed academy and a shop featuring an extensive selection of photographic books.
With a great network of world-class photographers at the core, Fotografiska Stockholm has since the opening hosted 200 exhibitions, including the work of iconic masters such as Annie Leibovitz, David LaChapelle, Irving Penn, Helmut Newton, Sarah Moon, Nick Brandt and Andres Serrano, as well as up-and-coming young photographers.
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