Collaborating with scientists, citizen-witnesses and activists, Abdessamad El Montassir develops an artistic practice at the crossroads of research and creation. His works are the fruit of a meticulous process where the collection of testimonies revives the oral memories of the Sahara, often buried and silenced by an official history.

His projects trace an itinerary, that of sensitive gleaning and interpretation of micro-histories and poems allowing him to reveal a cartography where previously invisible geographical spaces are brought to light. Carrying eminently political, cultural and social dimensions, his works are notably inhabited by resistance, whether it concerns memory in the face of time, an oppressed word that is difficult to express, or a reaction to an established order.

Abdessamad El Montassir’s work and research are based on three concepts that he has theorized: the right to forget, fictional and visceral narratives, and the trauma of anticipation. (…)