Middle East Now presents the work of the young Moroccan photographer Tabit Rida, 25 years old, one of the emerging talents of the Middle Eastern photography.
Around the world, countries and their citizens were interrupted by a global pandemic. Morocco is no different. Rida Tabit, a self-taught photographer, took to the streets to document his hometown Marrakech in this unprecedented period of time.
While tourism has heavily been affected by the pandemic, Rida seized the opportunity to photograph the often overlooked reality of his city beyond its tourism and crowds. This work reveals encounters of daily life in the midst of a sense of solitude and stillness.
The Urban landscape plays a vivid role as a backdrop, and at times, the main subject. It provides a source of visual pleasure all on its own. Passerby citizens freeze in time and hold their ground like sculptures in action, others are held in their position, trapped in their surroundings. Both the surroundings and the people collide into one, turning these fleeting moments into permanence.
His moving images of the common and everyday scenes—videos he made on his phone—are a reminder that time didn’t really halt, that the world moves on, that the earth rotates even in the hardest times, that human resistance is a natural phenomenon. It is a message that manifests a sign of hope in times of solitude.
The viewers eyes are invited to uphold these significant arrangements. The color matching, the figurative alignments, the small details—or merely—to observe the simplicity and worldliness of what is in the frame and what might have escaped it.
Project and exhibition curated by Roï Saade.
Set design production by Archivio Personale.
MAD Murate Art District – Piazza delle Murate Firenze
29 settembre / 20 novembre 2021
(Hours: Mon-Sat | 2:30am / 7:30pm) – free entrance
Opening and Talk with the artist and the curator:
Wednesday 29 September – H 6:00pm
