Open Space #6 Meriem Bennani

Open Space is a programme dedicated to the most contemporary artistic expressions. National and international artists are invited to create a specific project for the Fondation. Open Space takes place regularly in different settings around Frank Gehry’s building.

For her first personal exhibition in Paris, Meriem Bennani conceived a specific installation based on her new film, Mission Teens (2019) for Open Space #6. 

Inspired by teen movies, reality television and web series, this fictional documentary follows the everyday activities of a group of students from Descartes high school, the French high school in Rabat, as they go from classroom to home. Through the questioning, reflections, and aspirations of the students, the artist, or rather the donkey—her animated avatar behind the camera—investigates the impact of an educational system inherited from French presence in Morocco, which today is reserved for the local elite.

Meriem Bennani explores contemporary society, its fractured identities and cultural disparities, and questions of gender and the hegemony of digital technology. Her films unfold in immersive, sound-intensive installations at the crossroads of reality and fiction, where images fragment the narrative, exploding across multiple projections, revealing the effects of animation with a touch of humour.

Ludovic Delalande and Claire Staebler