The Hassan II Center for International Forums, in the Moroccan city of Asilah, recently hosted a collective exhibition by Moroccan-Spanish artist Said al-Masari and Syrian-Spanish Ali Sultan.
The exhibition blends calligraphy and stone sculpting, unify artworks and structures of two artists from the West and the East, and reflects the multicultural pattern of the Cultural Moussem of Asilah Festival through contemporary art.
Held as part of the 44th edition of the Cultural Moussem of Asilah Festival, one of the exhibitions showcases graphics and 3D visual arts under the theme “Artistic Ingenuity”.
Ali Sultan told the media that his exhibition, “Suleiman and Salaawi” displays 22 of his stone-printed artworks accompanied by a text by Francisco Fernández Naval. “The works are inspired by the memory of a child, me in this case, who was born and raised listening to popular stories and myths that formed the Syrian vocal heritage,” he added.
For his part, artist Said al-Masari said his exhibition, dubbed “Role of Paper”, includes artworks made using two different techniques, adding that “it features two types of works, one known as experimental sculpting that led to the structures. The other type relied exclusively on paper to create an artistic expression.”
Ali Sultan was born in Syria, studied in Damascus, and later moved to Galicia, Spain, where he developed the comic novel “Suleiman and Salaawi”. He belongs to the fourth generation of Syrian artists who inherited the traditions of the Damascene artistic renaissance during the second half of the 20th century.
Said al-Masari was born in Tetouan, in 1956. He graduated from the National School of Fine Arts in the city, and later studied at the fine arts school of Spain’s Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He wrote articles on culture and art in newspapers and magazines, drew book covers and designed posters, and oversaw calligraphy and sculpting workshops in Spain, Italy, and Morocco.
