Atlas Lion - Metallic structure, concrete and earth, 240 x 600 x 90 cm / 2021
ATLAS LION (LION DE L'ATLAS)
The sculptural ensemble of two lions facing each other, recently produced by Amine El Gotaibi, is a crystallization that one could qualify as perfect of his practice, an effective allegory of a fundamental tension that can be traced back to other figures developed previously. Two lions, which we can imagine as lions of the Atlas—disappeared today but still present in the national imagination—are confronted as in a heraldic coat of arms, and nothing distinguishes them at first glance except the different material and color used for each of the two: concrete for one, which we will now call lion A, and earth for the other, lion B. Reminding ourselves that this opposition between concrete and earth is one of the classic dichotomies in the work of Amine El Gotaibi, concrete identifying itself with the proud sterility of technical progress, the arrogance of cities, and the headlong rush into an anonymous and robotic construction where cultural identity fades away. Profitability in a postcolonial African context where the break with the past is still exalted in the name of modernity. Opposite, the earth carries the fertile promise of a renewal of man reconciled with nature, with the landscape, with the tradition of indigenous construction, both more ecological and more creative, and above all, with a warmer material and permeable to its environment.
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ATLAS LION (LION DE L'ATLAS)
The sculptural ensemble of two lions facing each other, recently produced by Amine El Gotaibi, is a crystallization that one could qualify as perfect of his practice, an effective allegory of a fundamental tension that can be traced back to other figures developed previously. Two lions, which we can imagine as lions of the Atlas—disappeared today but still present in the national imagination—are confronted as in a heraldic coat of arms, and nothing distinguishes them at first glance except the different material and color used for each of the two: concrete for one, which we will now call lion A, and earth for the other, lion B. Reminding ourselves that this opposition between concrete and earth is one of the classic dichotomies in the work of Amine El Gotaibi, concrete identifying itself with the proud sterility of technical progress, the arrogance of cities, and the headlong rush into an anonymous and robotic construction where cultural identity fades away. Profitability in a postcolonial African context where the break with the past is still exalted in the name of modernity. Opposite, the earth carries the fertile promise of a renewal of man reconciled with nature, with the landscape, with the tradition of indigenous construction, both more ecological and more creative, and above all, with a warmer material and permeable to its environment.
read more
ATLAS LION (LION DE L'ATLAS)
The sculptural ensemble of two lions facing each other, recently produced by Amine El Gotaibi, is a crystallization that one could qualify as perfect of his practice, an effective allegory of a fundamental tension that can be traced back to other figures developed previously. Two lions, which we can imagine as lions of the Atlas—disappeared today but still present in the national imagination—are confronted as in a heraldic coat of arms, and nothing distinguishes them at first glance except the different material and color used for each of the two: concrete for one, which we will now call lion A, and earth for the other, lion B. Reminding ourselves that this opposition between concrete and earth is one of the classic dichotomies in the work of Amine El Gotaibi, concrete identifying itself with the proud sterility of technical progress, the arrogance of cities, and the headlong rush into an anonymous and robotic construction where cultural identity fades away. Profitability in a postcolonial African context where the break with the past is still exalted in the name of modernity. Opposite, the earth carries the fertile promise of a renewal of man reconciled with nature, with the landscape, with the tradition of indigenous construction, both more ecological and more creative, and above all, with a warmer material and permeable to its environment.
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Atlas Lion Sketch, ink and pencil on tissue paper, 25 x 33 cm / 2021
THE LINGUISTIC TENSION OF ASAD
This opposition had already been deployed in many pieces belonging to the "National Territory" cycle, produced especially in the years 2015 and 2016. Thus, this sculpture with lions is in clear continuity with the previous stages, because, in reality, all of Amine El Gotaibi’s work aims at a thematic unity of which the "Visite à Okavango" is both the meeting and the consecration. For my part, I would like to hypothesize that this tension between concrete and earth, carried by two face-to-face lions, brilliantly reformulates in plastic terms a very precise and subtle linguistic creativity of the Arabic language, which can be summed up by the semantic richness of the permutations of letters within a root matrix, or the emergence by contiguity between "parent" roots of new meanings.
Regarding the words to designate the animal lion, Arabic offers two main options: on the one hand one anchored in the root ASD, with the substantive ASAD, and on the other hand, a second anchored in the root SB-3 (the "3" used here for the letter "’ayn") with the noun most used today in Morocco, SEBAÂ. My contribution is an invitation to revisit the etymologies of these two roots, as well as of the "parent" roots, to see together how around these two semantic fields unfold connotations which confirm, develop and poetize the intrinsic problems of the practice of Amine El Gotaibi. The etymology does not exhaust this work, but it is a dimension embedded in the culture that I consider important to highlight.
read more
THE LINGUISTIC TENSION OF ASAD
This opposition had already been deployed in many pieces belonging to the "National Territory" cycle, produced especially in the years 2015 and 2016. Thus, this sculpture with lions is in clear continuity with the previous stages, because, in reality, all of Amine El Gotaibi’s work aims at a thematic unity of which the "Visite à Okavango" is both the meeting and the consecration. For my part, I would like to hypothesize that this tension between concrete and earth, carried by two face-to-face lions, brilliantly reformulates in plastic terms a very precise and subtle linguistic creativity of the Arabic language, which can be summed up by the semantic richness of the permutations of letters within a root matrix, or the emergence by contiguity between "parent" roots of new meanings.
Regarding the words to designate the animal lion, Arabic offers two main options: on the one hand one anchored in the root ASD, with the substantive ASAD, and on the other hand, a second anchored in the root SB-3 (the "3" used here for the letter "’ayn") with the noun most used today in Morocco, SEBAÂ. My contribution is an invitation to revisit the etymologies of these two roots, as well as of the "parent" roots, to see together how around these two semantic fields unfold connotations which confirm, develop and poetize the intrinsic problems of the practice of Amine El Gotaibi. The etymology does not exhaust this work, but it is a dimension embedded in the culture that I consider important to highlight.
read more
THE LINGUISTIC TENSION OF ASAD
This opposition had already been deployed in many pieces belonging to the "National Territory" cycle, produced especially in the years 2015 and 2016. Thus, this sculpture with lions is in clear continuity with the previous stages, because, in reality, all of Amine El Gotaibi’s work aims at a thematic unity of which the "Visite à Okavango" is both the meeting and the consecration. For my part, I would like to hypothesize that this tension between concrete and earth, carried by two face-to-face lions, brilliantly reformulates in plastic terms a very precise and subtle linguistic creativity of the Arabic language, which can be summed up by the semantic richness of the permutations of letters within a root matrix, or the emergence by contiguity between "parent" roots of new meanings.
Regarding the words to designate the animal lion, Arabic offers two main options: on the one hand one anchored in the root ASD, with the substantive ASAD, and on the other hand, a second anchored in the root SB-3 (the "3" used here for the letter "’ayn") with the noun most used today in Morocco, SEBAÂ. My contribution is an invitation to revisit the etymologies of these two roots, as well as of the "parent" roots, to see together how around these two semantic fields unfold connotations which confirm, develop and poetize the intrinsic problems of the practice of Amine El Gotaibi. The etymology does not exhaust this work, but it is a dimension embedded in the culture that I consider important to highlight.
read more
Atlas Lion - Exhibition View VISIT MCC Gallery, Marrakech / 2022
ASAD'S ROOTS: POWER AND FEAR
Thus, I put as a working hypothesis that the concrete lion, lion A, revolves perfectly around the ASAD possibility, and that the earth lion, lion B, revolves around it in a very stimulating way around of the SEBAÂ possibility. If we start with the lion A, which I propose to name ASAD, we find that the main verb ASADA indicates the idea of "putting someone against", and that its first variant refers us directly to the lion, since the verb ASIDA indicates "to be afraid at the sight of a lion". We are therefore facing the lion of the rich iconographies in many civilizations, Persian, Babylonian, Christian of the Middle Ages, etc., where the lion embodies majesty, power exercised at a distance and by its own visual manifestation. It is therefore a lion symbolizing omnipotence, arrogance, and terror. If we make a first permutation, SA’ADA means "strangle", but, more significantly, SU’ÂD specifically refers to illness after drinking salt water. This is already a clear symptom of the sterility of concrete. Yet another avenue of exploration opens with the root S-D-D, just as attractive: the verb SADDA means "to close", and INSADDA, to be closed, blocked.
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ASAD'S ROOTS: POWER AND FEAR
Thus, I put as a working hypothesis that the concrete lion, lion A, revolves perfectly around the ASAD possibility, and that the earth lion, lion B, revolves around it in a very stimulating way around of the SEBAÂ possibility. If we start with the lion A, which I propose to name ASAD, we find that the main verb ASADA indicates the idea of "putting someone against", and that its first variant refers us directly to the lion, since the verb ASIDA indicates "to be afraid at the sight of a lion". We are therefore facing the lion of the rich iconographies in many civilizations, Persian, Babylonian, Christian of the Middle Ages, etc., where the lion embodies majesty, power exercised at a distance and by its own visual manifestation. It is therefore a lion symbolizing omnipotence, arrogance, and terror. If we make a first permutation, SA’ADA means "strangle", but, more significantly, SU’ÂD specifically refers to illness after drinking salt water. This is already a clear symptom of the sterility of concrete. Yet another avenue of exploration opens with the root S-D-D, just as attractive: the verb SADDA means "to close", and INSADDA, to be closed, blocked.
read more
ASAD'S ROOTS: POWER AND FEAR
Thus, I put as a working hypothesis that the concrete lion, lion A, revolves perfectly around the ASAD possibility, and that the earth lion, lion B, revolves around it in a very stimulating way around of the SEBAÂ possibility. If we start with the lion A, which I propose to name ASAD, we find that the main verb ASADA indicates the idea of "putting someone against", and that its first variant refers us directly to the lion, since the verb ASIDA indicates "to be afraid at the sight of a lion". We are therefore facing the lion of the rich iconographies in many civilizations, Persian, Babylonian, Christian of the Middle Ages, etc., where the lion embodies majesty, power exercised at a distance and by its own visual manifestation. It is therefore a lion symbolizing omnipotence, arrogance, and terror. If we make a first permutation, SA’ADA means "strangle", but, more significantly, SU’ÂD specifically refers to illness after drinking salt water. This is already a clear symptom of the sterility of concrete. Yet another avenue of exploration opens with the root S-D-D, just as attractive: the verb SADDA means "to close", and INSADDA, to be closed, blocked.
read more
Atlas Lion - Metallic structure, concrete and earth, 240 x 600 x 90 cm / 2021
SADD'S MEANING: LION'S DOMAIN
The substantive SADD, with a plural ASDÂD, indicates an obstacle, a closure, a mountain, a barrier and, oh so speaking for this context, a dam. We thus think of the lion A as the body of these hydraulic projects at the time of the articulation and hierarchy of the territories, and which allow the cities to receive the water resources of entire regions, which are, consequently, deprived of natural courses. A rocky valley that retains water is a SUDD, plural SIDADA, as if water and its control would be the definitive weapon of power and the lion A. Through the deployment of concrete infrastructure and concrete habitable constructions, it is is the whole orchestration of modern power which is here highlighted. The last great root which interests us concerning the lion A, the root SÂDA, whose verb means precisely "to order" We find the classic terms for power, of which SIYÂDA is the most frequent, and SAIYYID, the leader. Note in this sense that we even meet a term to designate both the wolf and the lion, SIYD, plural SIYDÂN.
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SADD'S MEANING: LION'S DOMAIN
The substantive SADD, with a plural ASDÂD, indicates an obstacle, a closure, a mountain, a barrier and, oh so speaking for this context, a dam. We thus think of the lion A as the body of these hydraulic projects at the time of the articulation and hierarchy of the territories, and which allow the cities to receive the water resources of entire regions, which are, consequently, deprived of natural courses. A rocky valley that retains water is a SUDD, plural SIDADA, as if water and its control would be the definitive weapon of power and the lion A. Through the deployment of concrete infrastructure and concrete habitable constructions, it is is the whole orchestration of modern power which is here highlighted. The last great root which interests us concerning the lion A, the root SÂDA, whose verb means precisely "to order" We find the classic terms for power, of which SIYÂDA is the most frequent, and SAIYYID, the leader. Note in this sense that we even meet a term to designate both the wolf and the lion, SIYD, plural SIYDÂN.
read more
SADD'S MEANING: LION'S DOMAIN
The substantive SADD, with a plural ASDÂD, indicates an obstacle, a closure, a mountain, a barrier and, oh so speaking for this context, a dam. We thus think of the lion A as the body of these hydraulic projects at the time of the articulation and hierarchy of the territories, and which allow the cities to receive the water resources of entire regions, which are, consequently, deprived of natural courses. A rocky valley that retains water is a SUDD, plural SIDADA, as if water and its control would be the definitive weapon of power and the lion A. Through the deployment of concrete infrastructure and concrete habitable constructions, it is is the whole orchestration of modern power which is here highlighted. The last great root which interests us concerning the lion A, the root SÂDA, whose verb means precisely "to order" We find the classic terms for power, of which SIYÂDA is the most frequent, and SAIYYID, the leader. Note in this sense that we even meet a term to designate both the wolf and the lion, SIYD, plural SIYDÂN.
read more
