Marwan Rechmaoui: Slanted Squares

Overview

This exhibition booklet is a record of Slanted Squares, a major solo exhibition of the works of artist Marwan Rechmaoui. The exhibition, curated by Zeynep Öz, was co-organised by the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastrich and Sharjah Art Foundation. Before travelling to the Foundation, the exhibition was on view at the Bonnefantenmuseum as part of Bonnefanten Award for Contemporary Art (BACA) 2019.

Slanted Squares reflects Rechmaoui’s methodical study of cartography, demographics and urbanisation. It presents two series of works, a Sharjah Art Foundation commission and a group of drawings centered around the construction of buildings. The drawings, shown for the first time in this exhibition, act as a mechanism for the artist to express playfulness and freedom. They document history through physical construction sites and foundational structures, using these spaces to generate metaphors for urban archaeological processes such as digging, excavating, stabilising and possibly rebuilding.