A revisitation of Moroccan heritage in the work of Lalla Essaydi

A grand residence built in 1910, Dar El Bacha in Marrakech is the former residence of Thami El Glaoui, appointed the Pasha of Marrakech by Sultan Moulay in 1912. A remarkable and enrapturing palace, it represents the beauty of Islamic art and architecture through a blend of traditional Moroccan elements, including intricate zellige tilework, carved cedarwood ceilings and magical gardens. It is now the Museum of Confluences, showcasing a range of artifacts, from traditional Moroccan art to contemporary works, showcasing the country’s rich modern history. It also, as captured by the mesmerizing works of Moroccan artist Lalla Essaydi in her ongoing exhibition titled “The visible, the unveiled” at the museum, running from September 27 to March 23, has another past. It is a palace with rooms once served for the harem, an often-secluded house or part of a house reserved for women in some Muslim households.

Essaydi’s latest series, Harem, is a continuation of her two previous ones: Converging Territories and Les Femmes du Maroc.

“I see my work as one continuous body of work, evolving through the years as my visual perspective changes and my experience expands,” she explains. “The new series is set in the harem quarters of a palace in Marrakech. The quarters are exquisite. The palace, which took 28 years to complete, is decorated with mosaic, stucco, stained glass, and carved wood. The harem itself is located at its very heart, behind a labyrinthine network of corridors and massive doors.”

Essaydi’s works are the result of a meticulous performance-based process whereby she incorporates photography, painting, calligraphy, costume, set and interior design—all of which brings to life the oft overlooked stories of women in Islamic culture, particularly in Morocco, and their largely secluded lives. Her work, poignant and breathtaking, represents the multifaceted identity of Muslim women through works that stylistically nod to the clichés of Orientalist art.

“Even now, one can sense its oppressive atmosphere of isolation and concealment,” explains Essaydi. “In preparing this work, I spent some time there, trying to imagine how the women felt who were consigned to this space, the loneliness, companionship and solidarity that they shared. They were indeed Sisters in the Harem, hidden away as if some shameful secrets were involved.”

Dar El Basha Essaydi has long inspired the work of Essaydi. In 2009 she photographed women inside the lavish walls of the Marrakech palace for her Harem series for which she made original Moroccan-style garments for her female models that echoed the intricate mosaic and carved wood patterns that decorate this the historical Dar El Basha. Once again, for her Harem Revisited series (2012-2013), she incorporated antique Moroccan dresses borrowed from the collection of Nour and Boubker Temli to echo the Islamic art and architecture found in the palace. Then, in her series Bullets and Bullets Revisited (2009-2014), Essaydi provides stage sets for her photographs offering a rich scene of ornate tiles, woodwork, and clothing made from bullet casings.

While these dazzling and deeply mesmerizing works immediately transfix the viewer, they also seek to comment on the challenges and violence, particularly for women in the Middle East and North African countries.

The power of these works is to transform objects of violence into subjects of beauty. The bullets that Essaydi incorporated in lavish female garments or used as meticulous backdrops transformed what were previously a mode for violence and death into subjects of beauty, hope and transcendence.

Now, in this upcoming exhibition, Harem (2009-2010), the final installation of her serial triptych marks a continuation of both her series Converging Territories (2004) and Les Femmes du Maroc (2008-2009) gives attention as she says to “the odalisque, veil, and especially Harem spaces.”

Essaydi calls the harem “beautiful spaces of confinement.” In this new work she returns to the rich colors and architectural features that she purposely stripped from previous two series. “Instead, Harem is marked by an emphasis on architecture and ornamentation, which evokes an immediacy and presence in reality as opposed to abstracted spaces of the imagination,” she explains. “For me, Harem means the large tight net family where I was raised with women who care and support each other. For me, Harem is an extended family of women.”

Essaydi explains how the series began in 2009 during a time when she was in the process of reorienting herself towards Morocco, “in mind, spirit, and creative practice,” explains Essaydi. “Though I have always returned home to see my family, it was more as a visitor than resident. Spending time in Marrakech allowed me to pause and reconsider Morocco as home in the present, rather than simply a place of my past. This reorientation manifests itself in Harem, in which I revisit my origins, this time with a new independence I had not previously associated with my homeland.”

Essaydi has long related to the Arabian Gulf. Born in Morocco, she lived in Saudi Arabia for many years. She studied painting and photography at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and has exhibited her work in exhibitions throughout the world, including in many major U.S. and European cities, including Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Texas, Buffalo, Colorado, New York, Syria, Dubai, the Netherlands, Germany, and England, and is represented in a number of international collections.

She also participated in The New York Times Art for Tomorrow conference in Doha, Qatar in March 2017, organized by Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and was the keynote speaker at the 7th Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art: Past, Present and Future in November 2017 in Richmond, Virginia.

One of her works will also be featured in an upcoming exhibition at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar from November 2, 2024 to March 8, 2025. “Splendours of the Atlas: A Voyage through Morocco’s Heritage” is designed to transport visitors on a captivating journey through the multifaceted heritage of Islamic Morocco. This immersive experience is divided into an engaging introduction and three main sections, offering a thematic exploration of the country’s rich and unique Islamic history, its exquisite and distinctive craftsmanship, and the examples of its music and culinary traditions as vibrant cultural expressions of its intangible heritage.

Her upcoming exhibition in Dar El Basha brings her work full circle and in many ways is metaphorically and aesthetically liberating to the idea of the harem. “When I photographed in this palace, it was closed for many years but was in the process of being converted to a museum and today is a museum,” she recalls. “When I visited this palace, I saw how interesting and unusual the designs in the palace were—how the tiles and the colors that were used are distinct from buildings found elsewhere in Morocco and in southern Spain. The act of my photographs in the space adds another layer of meaning to these photographs namely the recognition of Moroccan heritage.”