Overview

Younes Rahmoun: Here, Now is the first survey for multidisciplinary artist Younes Rahmoun. Born in 1975 in Tetouan, Morocco, where he continues to live and work, Rahmoun is a leading figure in contemporary art internationally as well as a dedicated mentor and teacher to subsequent generations of artists in Morocco.

The exhibition explores how Rahmoun’s artistic practice has, since the 1990s, created space for viewers to be in community, together in the here and now, through a focus on formal rigor, iterative processes, and social engagements. Foremost among the exhibition’s themes are nature, place, and landscape; spirituality; migration as a consequence of de/colonization; and art as a premise for coming together. The exhibition invests in multiple locations across Smith: SCMA’s galleries and atrium façade, the Botanic Garden of Smith College, the banks of Paradise Pond, and the MacLeish Field Station in Whately, MA. New site-specific commissions will be exhibited at these locations alongside a selection of major sculptures, drawings, videos, and installations that Rahmoun has made over the past twenty-five years.

Inspired by the artist’s commitment to working collaboratively and creating connections across multiple locations, two partner exhibitions—at La Kunsthalle Mulhouse and Kulte: Center for Contemporary Art & Editions—will open in Mulhouse, France, and Rabat, Morocco, respectively, in 2024.

At Lyman Plant House

At Lyman, visitors will find the Church Gallery reimagined. The space has been turned into a dark room, windows covered, walls painted dark grey, in order to allow for this installation where a seed becomes a tree becomes a seed again in a video animation installed near our greenhouses, places which nurture similar cycles of growth. 

An exhibit guide will be available in the Lyman lobby with information on the other sites. That information can also be found on SCMA's website.

Related Publication

A trilingual (Arabic, English, French) book will accompany the exhibition. It is co-published by Zamân Books & Curating (Paris, France); Kulte: Center for Contemporary Art & Editions (Rabat, Morocco); La Kunsthalle Mulhouse (Mulhouse, France); and SCMA. Edited by Emma Chubb and Morad Montazami and designed by Montasser Drissi, it features contributions by Omar Berrada, Indigo Casais, Emma Chubb, Safaa Erruas, Hannah Feldman, Maud Houssais, Alexandra Keller, Fatima-Zahra Lakrissa, Carlos Pérez Marín, Katarzyna Pieprzak, Frazer Ward, Sandrine Wymann, and Lynne Yamamoto.

Acknowledgements

Younes Rahmoun: Here, Now is curated by Emma Chubb, Charlotte Feng Ford ’83 Curator of Contemporary Art. The entire SCMA staff has contributed to the realization and stewardship of the exhibition.

The exhibition is organized in conjunction with exhibitions at La Kunsthalle Mulhouse (France) and Kulte Center for Contemporary Art & Editions (Morocco). Zamân Books & Curating (Paris, France) co-published the book that accompanies the exhibition. 

SCMA gratefully acknowledges those whose collaboration and expertise have made the exhibition possible: Montasser Drissi, Imane Farès and Galerie Imane Farès (Paris, France), Madeleine de Colnet, Thomas Gothers, Marion Kahan, Massachusetts College of Art and Design (Boston), Morad Montazami, Yasmina Naji, Alexis Neubert, Ernest Plowman, Anas Rahmoun, Leila Simon Hayes, Larry Smallwood, Shannon Wallack, Waterman Excavating (Cheshire, MA), WHITCO (Adams, MA) and Sandrine Wymann. 

And at Smith College: Art Department, Arts Afield at CEEDS (Center for the Environment, Ecological Design and Sustainability), Botanic Garden of Smith College, Boutelle-Day Poetry Center, Digital Media Hub, French Department, Geosciences Department, Imaging Center, Kahn Liberal Arts Institute, Lewis Global Studies Center, Office of the Provost and Smith Office of the Arts.

Research and planning for this exhibition was made possible by a generous grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Younes Rahmoun: Here, Now is supported by the Judith Plesser Targan, class of 1953, Fund; the Maxine Weil Kunstadter, class of 1924, Fund; the SCMA Publications and Research Fund; the Ann Weinbaum Solomon, class of 1959, Fund; Botanic Garden of Smith College; the Charlotte Feng Ford, class of 1983, Research and Travel Fund for Contemporary Art; and the Bonnie Johnson Sacerdote, class of 1964, Museum Education Fund.