When individuals and communities migrate, they bring with them a rich tapestry of traditions rooted in their homelands. Settling in new countries, their traditions intersect with other dynamic forces. Quite often, as time-honored practices are juxtaposed with the fast-paced rhythms of contemporary life, a clash of different cultures becomes evident.
But it is exactly in this clash that new possibilities arise, as old ways meet new perspectives, creating a fertile ground for cultural exchange and transformation, as it happens in the images of self-taught photographer Mous Lamrabat.
Born in 1983 in the north of Morocco, but raised in Belgium, Lamrabat, a child of first generation immigrants, studied interior design, a discipline that allowed him to explore the spaces and objects that surround us and consider how they influence, change and challenge us.
As the years passed, combining his traditions and Western influences and moods, Lamrabat developed an aesthetic based on clashes of cultures and photographic series that show some connections with Hassan Hajjaj's portraits.
In a previous series Lamrabat came up with "Mousganistan", a concept inspired by a line in "Freedun" by M.I.A. in which she sings "From the People's Republic Of Swagistan".
"Mousganistan" is an imaginary land, a utopia, where the Moroccan/Arabic heritage combines with Western inspirations. A tapestry of contrasts emerges: logos like Nike's swoosh, Gucci's double G and McDonald's golden arches, appear in images characterized by Pop Art colours, combined with niqabs and traditional hats, while djellabas are juxtaposed to Jordan sneakers.
A surreal and eerie aesthetic with a futurist twist prevails, with bodies hidden by soft and lucid fabrics or wearing unusual and ironic designs, like a Nike sneaker made with skillfully manipulated red and white balloons complete with a yellow banana-shaped balloon swoosh.
In this ever-evolving tapestry, symbols and logos take on a new significance. They become the language through which the past converses with the present, creating a visual dialogue that transcends time. Modern hieroglyphics, these emblems evoke a sense of connection to our collective history, while also marking for Lamrabat a gradual shift towards more complex representations that may lead him one day to art installations or maybe to a collaboration with a fashion house.
For the time being, though, juxtapositions of traditions and modern moods still characterise his work and also permeate his new series showcased last week at the Tab Centre, in Shoreditch, London. The community centre provides invaluable support and assistance to children, families, youth, vulnerable adults, and asylum seekers.
For this new series, Lamrabat, photographed and interviewed diasporic communities from over 25 cultures, ranging from Brazil and India to Morocco and Mexico, over a four-month period.
The result of this visual adventure - "There's No One Like Us" - is an exploration of how individuals far away from their countries experience foreign communities and cultures whilst being physically distanced from their beloved families, or how they keep in touch with members of their families and friends who live abroad. In the exhibition each image is accompanied by audio recordings from the people portrayed, an expedient that gives context to the images (for this series Lamrabat collaborated with international messaging and communication application WhatsApp, so the service also appears as logos in the images and gets mentioned in the recordings).
Some of these stories show the yearning and resilience of people separated by the boundaries of distance and by cultural displacement.
In most cases, individual narratives transcend geographical boundaries: an elderly man living in Brazil, but with siblings all over the world talks, about his family, proving that powerful bonds extend across geographical borders; another portrait tackles the profound sense of interconnectedness between an African Indigenous woman, born in the US to immigrant families from Colombia, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic, and the African diaspora.
Identity and belonging combine in the project, with portraits of people wearing attire and accessories representing their countries of origin, harmoniously melded with elements from their current places of residence.
Beauty emerges when disparate worlds converge, when the threads of diverse experiences are intricately woven together in a dynamic and harmonious way (think about the young woman wearing a papier mâché leopard mask on the back of her head with a tamagotchi digital pet dangling from her ear), new hybrids are developed and cultural divisions are erased.
In embracing the act of combining different worlds, this new series celebrates the inherent beauty of cultural diversity but also fosters an appreciation for the fluid nature of identity formation as these blended personas are testament to the transformative power of cultural exchange.
All images in this post by and copyright Mous Lamrabat.
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