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Eric van Hove – Mahjouba IV v1 prototype – 2022 (artist multiple), Mixed media (13 Materials): brass-plated steel, brass, nickeled silver, paint, mahogany wood, plywood, tin, recycled aluminum, cowskin, factory-made mechanical components, factory-made electronical components, foam, 4KW electric engine and 3D-printed Polyethylene Terephthalate. Size:180x75x130cm, Weight: variable (65 kg) Courtesy the artist, (photo: Fenduq)

ERIC VAN HOVE – MAHJOUBA
Eric Van Hove started working on the Mahjouba Initiative in 2016, at the time Marrakech hosted the COP22. While the artist is using the Moroccan craft legacy as his preferred artistic medium since 2012, the Initiative ponders the meaningful possibility of reintegrating craft into the manufacturing of goods for the active middle-class locally. He proposes to do that by developing an electric motorcycle, that is combining craft, design, engineering and artistic know-how; a functionalist technical design standing at the crossing of the international legal standards for two-wheel electric drive and the tools and materials available to craftsmen locally.
Mahjouba 4 v1 is the fourth prototype/artwork to date on the Initiative’ timeline, and the last before the release of a consumer version in 2024. The Mahjouba moped is a multi-cultural art object that combines old and contemporary techniques and that is reflective of Moroccan, Maghreb, African, and European sensibilities.
“I argue that what emerges with the current dispensation of Van Hove’s practice is a complex bricolage that imbibes art, artisanship, tradition, contemporaneity, social entrepreneurship, utopia, and idealism. Van Hove’s collaborative practice is located at the interstice of what he describes as ‘living craft’ and contemporary art. Living craft refers to artisanal practices that are crucial to the advancement of modern life as opposed to the framework of cultural heritage and tradition within which the crafts industry, tied to tourism, is promoted. Van Hove describes his sculptures as a socio-economic object precisely because of its relationship with craftsmanship, a living tradition practiced by nearly three million Moroccans (…) Every Moroccan family has a practitioner, which means that it is quite possible to write Moroccan familial history through its craftsmanship tradition. Van Hove embraces the traditional system of network at the base of artisanal practice in Morocco whilst expanding what the network can be as a self-sustaining co- operative. He plugs Moroccan craftsmen into the formal industrial economy, offering them a path to financial stability, and ultimately makes a meaningful impact on the local economy by aligning craftsmanship and high art. He proposes a new social economy that ultimately reinvents artisanal practice and extends its critical potential for entrepreneurship.”

Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi – Éric Van Hove’s ‘Living Art’, in Fenduq, Jap Sam Books, Holland, 2019.

Launch Event for the Mahjouba 100 Collector Edition:

1-54 Art Fair Marrakech – https://www.1-54.com

February 9th, 5 to 6pm

@ Riad El Fenn – https://el-fenn.com

Eric van Hove – atelierericvanhove.com

FRANCISCO VIDAL'S PERFORMANCE – "STILL FREE" ORGANISED BY THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE
1-54 London 2022, courtesy of THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE

STILL FREE

I started developing the performance and series Still Free when the lockdown ended.

We all left our homes – a gesture shared by all who inhabit the planet in 2022. In this contemporary pandemic, societies performed an exercise familiar to painters for a long time. That of existing within the “creative bubble” of the studio.

In 2020 and 2021, I did a lot of drawings and paintings related to “isolation & social media” and “collective hysteria”, themes much more specific than the most common ones in my paintings. When I realized that these subjects dealt with the individual bubble space versus an active social space, I decided to do an exercise sitting at the opposite end of the individual experience and isolation.

Just like the idea of the caterpillar that goes through the enclosure of the cocoon to be reborn as a Mariposa.

Thus, this summer, I reactivated the form of the performance “African Industrial Revolution” – in which I drew portraits in public spaces of people I believe to be relevant to this revolution – in this new format, “STILL FREE”. It is in everything the same as the first one but on 100 x 70 cm sheets where I silkscreen a leopard skin and the words that give the performance its title.

It is a performance that celebrates the beauty of free thinking.

The first performance took place at the electronic music festival Sónar Lisbon (April 2022), the second at Cape Verde Cultural Center (May 2022), and now I will present the next one in London (October 2022).

Francisco Vidal Paço d’ Arcos September 14, 2022

Francisco Vidal’s performance will be taking place on the following date:

Date: Thursday 9th February Time: 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm [VIP day only by invitation]

Date: Friday 10th February Time: 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm [VIP day only by invitation]

Date: Saturday 11th February Time: 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm [Public day]

Address: Outdoor kiosk, La Mamounia Avenue Bab Jdid Marrakech, 40040 Morocco