Moroccan-Belgian photographer Mous Lamrabat reflects on his cross-culture heritage and delves into his new solo exhibition in Marrakech with Loft Art Gallery.

Being homesick is conflicting. A dichotomy of longing for a past and a resilience to the future; or the desire to be in two places at once. It’s sentimentality and nostalgia, hope and anguish. 

Creatives have often tried to recreate this evasive and unpredictable feeling through the gaze of their discipline. Few though, have done so as successfully as Mous Lamrabat. The seminal Moroccan-Belgian photographer is amongst the most renowned professionals in his field, decorated in the world of fashion as well as within the fine art circumference. 

Lamrabat has unveiled a new solo exhibition with Loft Art Gallery, Homesick, a series of 20 works that explore the concept of missing home, blending the tradition and the modern in bold and beautiful landscapes of vibrance and grit, the old and the new. Starting on 30th January and running until 15th March, the exhibition coincides with the 1-54 Marrakech art fair, and looks to create a significant bridge between the photographer’s home nation and the wider world consensus. Visually breathtaking and contextually captivating, Lamrabat’s sharp and expressive vision is a potent reminder of his craft and a thoughtful perception on cross-culture celebration.

Wonderland had the opportunity to connect with the contemporary giant, discussing the nucleus of his artistic identity, the influence of his cultural heritage on his work, and the conceptualisation and creation of the new exhibition. 

Hi Mous, how are you? How has the beginning of the year been? Talk us through your early memories of artistry? How did you first begin making the craft seriously?

Hello. I’m doing good, thank you very much. Alhamdulillah. I just landed in Dubai because I had a job here. I came straight from Marrakech where we had the opening of the Homesick exhibition, which was so, so, so, so beautiful. So much love, so much energy. And that gave me a lot of energy and adrenaline to continue to the next projects. The beginning of the year already started quite intense. Last year was a bit of a year of reflection for me. And I kind of manifested to start having a busier year for this year, for 25. And the manifestation kind of worked. 

Memories of artistry? I think we have to be artistic at a very early age. I mean creatively. Growing up in a house of nine, dad working in the factory, mom stayed at home. So, there was not a lot of extra. But still I was into these subcultures of groups. Listening to hip-hop, being into fashion, playing basketball. So, this whole staying fly and staying cool was an important thing back then. And we kind of did it in our own way. Because obviously we didn’t have the brands that create the cool when you wear them. So, we had to create our own thing that made us cool. With basically leftovers. I think that’s kind of one of the first moments when I grew up now. Realising that those were the first moments that we actually started being creative and artistic. The first time I started taking this craft seriously was when I was assisting a photographer for a year. Maybe almost two years. It took me about two years to think, okay, what he does, I think I can do. I could just copy the workflow and stuff like that. And it went quite smoothly basically. I just added a little bit of my own flavour. And all of a sudden we were working for magazines. And that was the moment that I considered myself as a professional photographer. It was mainly fashion back then. You could do whatever you wanted, as long as there was clothes and models and a concept, it was fashion. And the style of photography you could really choose. You could really do whatever you want. 

How does your Moroccan-Belgian background influence your approach to your craft, and this exhibition in particular? 

I mean, it’s normal that it influences who I am. Because I grew up in both. For me, when I started taking inspiration from both places, it really felt so logical. I almost felt like I was not looking clearly at who I was. We always have photographers that we look up to. We kind of mimic them in the beginning. But at some point, it was just like, you need to come closer to yourself. And coming that close to myself is just basically who I am. And I grew up, all of my interests, how I was inside the house with my parents, and how I was outside the house with my friends, those were two completely different worlds. So colliding the two, it just felt so logical to do that. Because it became whole, you know.

And while I was doing that, I basically kept those works for myself, as a coping mechanism. There was one point that someone saw these images, and I was super insecure, because I didn’t show that work to anyone. And at some point, that person was like, this is magnificent, this is new, this is refreshing, this is where you should be, not the commercial fashion editorial that you do. So I kind of dug into that, and just all of a sudden, I was not the only one that recognises himself in these images: there were so many people who related to it.  And the rest was history. 

How do you portray and celebrate your cross-continent culture heritage?

I think I celebrate it just to show how beautifully these things can work together. I know it’s an image, or artwork, but sometimes I try to catch it as something that is so beautiful, and works so well together, while the outside world sometimes always does their best to separate these things, and to separate us. But it works so beautifully together.

And I think in reality also, that’s just how we perceive life. Because we’ll never live in a world where everybody lives separate, like culturally, and skin colours, and religions, it’s never going to exist anymore that we all live separately. The moment we realise that, or we accept that, is a chance of harmony.

Congratulations on your new exhibition! How are you feeling? Excited? 

Thank you so much. The exhibition was…It gave me so much energy.

I was so tired building it up. But the moment of the opening, I kind of realised that we kind of did it again. We brought people together that usually don’t spend time in one room. Like, different age, different skin colour, different backgrounds, different cultures. I always feel so emotional when I see these things happening. 

But it was such a nice experience again. I love doing exhibitions in Morocco, because in a way, the work is understood very well, whilst abroad, sometimes I need to explain what my universe is, or what my vision is. In Morocco, it’s so clear.

What was the thought behind naming the exhibition Homesick? To you, what does being homesick mean?   

I often get homesick just because of not spending enough time in places where I feel at ease. You know, because feeling at ease should be a basic right.

And you don’t want to feel like an outsider for too long, right? I mean, if you feel like an outsider, it’s okay. It’s not the end of the world. But when it takes too long, when you feel like an outsider, it’s starting to become, it starts to play with your mental.

And that was kind of the thing with me. It was such a long time ago since I visited Morocco. I was in Belgium most of the time, and Europe.

And I just felt so homesick. I was just like, okay, when are we going to go back? I kind of put one month in your journal of like, okay, I will not do anything in here this month except going back home. And just be there, just breathe the air, and just feel the light of the moment. And honestly, it made me so happy. I was happy there. It feels like you need to earth, like this idea of earthing. Like you need to earth every now and then. And that’s my way of letting things go, having the pressure off my shoulders. I don’t know if that makes sense, but that’s basically how it feels. 

The homesick feeling is a feeling that you’re just missing something, something you want to be. And it’s not always a place. It’s not geographic. Sometimes it’s just a person. Sometimes it’s a smell. Like right now, I’ve been a couple of weeks away from my family, and my brother got married in the meantime, and I couldn’t be at the wedding. Yeah, I feel homesick. I feel homesick of my family right now. And I will not be able to see them for a whole other month. So that’s also a form of homesick. 

Sometimes I get homesick of creating. And I get homesick to the feeling of expressing yourself, of putting it out there. All the ideas and stuff, when it stays inside you for too long, it needs to get out. It’s like a sneeze. It’s healthy.

Talk us through the conceptualisation and the creation of the works?

This time around I wanted to go to a place unprepared. Sometimes it’s nice to create a space and have your senses sharp, open, and just wait and see what’s working there. And basically this whole shoot, this whole series was just like, ok, let’s walk around, let’s breathe, you don’t have to force anything, and let it come to you. Because I always try to explain to people that, especially in Marrakech, it’s a place where ideas and inspirations just slap you in the face. You don’t really have to look for it, it’s just there. If you have your senses open, it just comes to you.  And then looking outside, seeing three women walking by with a traditional dress and a hijab, all in leopard print and stuff like that. These are things that really inspire me. The next day I went and bought leopard prints, because they look so beautiful. Everything that we created was inspired just by walking around.  

Why was it significant that the exhibition was presented in Marrakech?  

I had never done an exhibition in Marrakech. Marrakech is a place I’m very thankful for, because it was Marrakech that created everything. All my work was inspired by this place, from the very beginning. It was Marrakech that made me realise what I wanted to do. That I wanted to stop working commercially and create my own DNA.  There is just something magical about the place. If you’ve never been, you should go. The moment you land, the moment you walk around, you just feel it, that there’s something there. It’s the first time I did an exhibition in Marrakech, and it was very long overdue. It’s my favourite place in the world, basically.

You see so many people go there for the first time. I know people who went there for the first time, and the second time they came back was to look for an apartment. Just because of how good it is.

The city is so good to us, so good to me.

How important is it to be bold in your work? How do you think the exhibition strikes such a note?

Apparently, I’m bold. But I don’t really see it. It’s just another thought of the viewer. I always try to explain to people that my work is basically 50% of the work.

You see what you see, and then the person that looks at it, 50% comes from that person, the interpretation.  And the interpretation comes also from how that person is feeling, where that person is in his life, and stuff like that. Because I just try to create emotion, basically. From the moment you have an emotion, people will look at your photos for longer than two seconds. And when there’s an emotion there, people reflect their own emotion also, to add to the photo. I mean, I’ve seen it in exhibitions, people crying at the exhibition. Like this time in Marrakech, there was apparently this older woman crying over how emotional she got. But usually it says much more about the person than about the work, because there’s also other people coming with laughter. And this is what I like to play with. It’s basically a collaboration between the two. It’s a cocktail of me and you. So, is it bold? I don’t know. 

For me, it’s all about unity. This is basically what I always want.

What do you hope the exhibition achieves? What conversations do you hope that it opens? 

I just want to put people together in one space. I want people to have a conversation. Everybody who has a vision as an artist or as a creative, they are a window to their universe. And this is what I try to be. I’m just one window that people can peep in: for people to look inside and see how I see the world. 

There’s a lot of things going on in the world right now that are really heartbreaking. But as long as we don’t realise that we need each other, nothing will ever change. Nothing will change. And I think if a lot of us try to do these little efforts of bringing people in one space and have conversations, then I feel like it’s a start.

I mean, I’m only one, but I know that there are so many other artists doing the same things. To normalise their own world to the outsiders, to show the beauty of it and make them understand in their own way. It’s basically translating my world, where I’m coming from, to the viewer. I think that’s what I really want. It’s really important me. 

What else do you have coming this year? 

This year started quite exciting. I’m doing a couple of projects at the same time. Now I’m in Dubai to shoot a project. And then we move to Paris, London and L.A. for the second one. And then we move to Vegas by the end of the month for the third one. And it’s very exciting. Honestly, I’m blessed. Thank God.

They are all projects where I can add something to it, my own little touch, which is always nice to do. I feel like also in the commercial world, it’s starting to become much more open to the creative vision of artists. And that’s really nice to see. Because even within the commercial world, you can start giving your little messages and references. And they’re very subtle. But maybe that’s a start for something. And I’m very excited about that.

What are your long-term goals?

Honestly, I would just like to have fun, be happy, spend time with my wife, spend time with my family and create. And do this over and over again. As long as I can create and spend time with my loved ones, I’m good. I’m already blessed. I don’t know if I need more. Obviously, there are some collaborations I would really love to see. But still, if it doesn’t come, it doesn’t come. At least I’m still having fun. So enough about me. How are you? 

Words – Ben Tibbits