Meriem Bennani à Essaouira : un uppercut au white cube / Meriem Bennani in Essaouira: A punch to the white cube

At the entrance to Essaouira’s port, a popular gym is hosting Meriem Bennani’s first exhibition in Morocco. Led by the Paris-based agency NG, the project brings together humour, science fiction and diasporic narratives, engaging both the gym’s regular users and contemporary art audiences.

“Everything started with the place,” explains Meryem Bensari, the exhibition’s production manager, who has been based in Essaouira for the past four years. The project took shape through a fortunate convergence of circumstances when she mentioned to Samy Ghiyati the existence of this nearly century-old boxing gym tucked away at the edge of the harbour. Trained in major international galleries from Kamel Mennour to David Zwirner and co-founder, alongside Nicolas Nahab, of the Paris-based advisory and curatorial agency NG, Ghiyati has long been familiar with Bennani’s work. He was struck by the fact that it had never before been shown in Morocco.

He quickly sensed that Bennani’s video trilogy Life of the Caps, with one of its characters hailing from Sidi Kaouki, its dialogues in Darija and an aesthetic deeply rooted in Moroccan popular culture, could resonate powerfully within the space of the Essaouira boxing gym. The project began to take shape far from the white cube, a deliberate stance embraced by NG, which is making its first curatorial foray here. “We have noticed that artists are increasingly eager to present their work in other contexts,” explains Nicolas Nahab. “There is a real appetite for elsewhere and for new cultural settings, and the projects we develop often echo the personal histories and origins of the artists we choose to work with.”

Democratising access to art

At the entrance, tea is served informally. Regulars of the gym mingle with boxers, locals and passing tourists, as well as artists and cultural professionals who have come specifically for the occasion. “It is a real source of pride,” says Meryem Bensari, visibly moved by the diversity of audiences brought together in a place held dear by the people of Essaouira. The objective is clear: to introduce contemporary art into the space without disrupting its everyday function.

The deliberately pared-back scenography blends into the existing environment. A screen is suspended among the machines and a few weight benches are repurposed for seating. Responsible for cultural mediation, local photographer Zakaria Mtilk coordinates the shared use of the space with its regular users, welcomes visitors and fosters dialogue. The exhibition thus adapts to the rhythm of the place and strives for inclusivity. This approach feels essential when presenting work that speaks so directly about borders and exclusion.

While Bennani uses humour and science fiction as tools to create distance from reality, the themes explored in her short films remain tangible and political: exile, capitalist alienation, surveillance, but also collective joy as a form of resistance. These are ways of shifting perspectives and allowing stories to resonate without fixing them within a rigidly identity-based reading. “It is a work about diasporic feeling, about being in-between,” the artist explains. “It does not necessarily belong to Morocco or to any other country. But I hope people will laugh too and recognize themselves in certain situations, or not.”

Although Morocco and its popular culture are not explicitly at the centre of her work, Bennani, who lives and works in New York, is curious to hear the responses to this first presentation in the country where she grew up. She believes that local audiences may bring a “more precise” reading to the work thanks to their shared understanding of certain codes, particularly humour, as well as references to lo-fi, kitsch digital aesthetics and the use of Darija, all of which form a common ground within Morocco’s post-digital era.

Chama Tahiri Ivorra

Life of the Caps, boxing gym, Avenue Mohammed V, Essaouira, 13 December 2025 to 8 February 2026.