© Philippe Beuf
Marie Moignard is a contemporary art historian specialized in contemporary art and photography. She holds a Master’s degree in contemporary art from the Sorbonne University (Paris). She is author of the first reference book A History of Moroccan Photography (Une histoire de la photographie marocaine), to be published by Malika Editions (Casablanca). Based in Morocco since 2013, she is a journalist and art critic for Diptyk art magazine. From 2013 to 2016, she created and hosted « Tchat Photo », a monthly meeting with the public around photography at the French Institute in Casablanca. She appraised works, notably with Pierre Bergé & Associés, for « Photographies Africaines » auction (Brussels 23/11/2010), and for the General States of Culture presented by Racines Association to the Moroccan Ministry of Culture in 2014. In 2011, she collaborated with the Arab Image Foundation to identify the Maghreb photographic heritage as part of the Middle East Photographs Preservation Initiative (MEPPI) program. She regularly lectures on moroccan photography, in particular at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, at Marseille’s Le Percolateur, a platform for photographic creation in the Mediterranean, and at the MoHO (Modern Heritage Observatory) in Rabat.
For the past four years, the Prix de La Chambre Claire has been a true incubator of talent. With much hope and emotion, as we witness the birth of a plant after planting a seed, I saw its young laureates shine like a rough diamond among the ever-increasing number of candidates trying their fortune. Enthusiastic to the idea of seeing a future talent emerge, I admired the kind and persistent care with which the Alliances Foundation accompanied them on the way to their first personal exhibition. As a birth, it is a great moment, both for the artist and for all those who believe in him. Then I saw them flourish like flowers of different form, color and scent. Intoxicating fragrances of the overflowing photomontages of Merji, intense color for Fayssal Zaoui who continues his professional career, perfume of dreams for Youssef Lahrichi who showed his photos at the Encounters of Bamako, tangled shapes for Mohamed Amine Abassi with his melancholic trees, rare flower that is the protean work of Adil Kourkouni, thorny beauty with a dangerously heady scent. What will be your shape, your color, your perfume? This is what I am burning to know, by discovering the next laureates of La Chambre Claire.