About me
Freshly graduated from the Center of Moroccan Cultural Studies at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez, El Maarouf Farouk was awarded a fellowship at MECAM-Fellowships for the IFG "Aesthetics & Cultural Practice" (Philipps Marburg University). Currently, El Maarouf is a Ph.D. candidate at the Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture, Giessen University.
Dissertation working title: The Aesthetics of the Margin: Vernacular Art Communities, Curious Dealers, Unorthodox Art Consumers, and Alternative Perceptions in Contemporary Morocco.
My research project revolves around visual art and art communities in contemporary Morocco. It is about communities (artists, artisans, art dealers, middlemen, collectors, experts, passionate art savourers) that, unlike the typical top-notch, upscale, wealthy fine art connoisseurs, live under the line of poverty and hardly make ends meet. By focusing on the marginalized, poverty-ridden communities that dwell in hidden unsightly Moroccan markets, weekly souks, café bazaars, informal transaction locations, I attempt to come to an understanding of how such communities conceive of art in the absence of the most basic forms of decent living. Hence, my research project departs from the contemporary cultural, social and political history of Morocco to generate an adequate discussion on the meanings and implications of seeing (visualizing) in the domain of art and culture.
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Jörn Ahrens
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0839-453X