Mustapha Azeroual
Sillage

The eac. collaborates with the Centre de la photographie de Mougins to present an exhibition highlighting the experimental aspect of the photographic medium.

Every year, the Centre de la photographie de Mougins invites one or more photographers for a six-week residency to explore the identity of the 06 territory, ever-changing and constantly redefined. These research and experimentation residencies are supported by DRAC PACA. It is within this framework that the work of Mustapha Azeroual, artist-in-residence during 2024, is presented here.

Born in 1979 in Tours, Mustapha Azeroual is a self-taught Franco-Moroccan photographer who lives and works between Tours and Marrakech. For several years, he has been developing a conceptual and experimental approach to photography, questioning its tools, processes, and mediums. His work is based on a rigorous exploration of the physicochemical, optical, and electronic dimensions of the medium, rejecting the dualism between photography as a mere capture of reality and its interpretation as a purely imaginary construct.

The exhibition presents a collection of experiments on the perception and capture of light, engaging the visitor in a sensory reflection beyond the visible. Mustapha Azeroual designs devices that, while exploiting contemporary technological advances, aim to intensify the experience of light and colour.

Since 2014, he has been exploring the relationship between light and vision, deconstructing the photographic act through various experiments: from recording light modulations with a flash, to holographic projection, and the creation of immersive installations.

His works question our sensory perception, involving sight, hearing, and sometimes even smell. With The Green Ray, he reduces the photographic landscape to its simplest expression: a horizon line and large areas of colour, thus transforming the image into pure abstraction. At the same time, the video installation Par une nuit sans lune depicts a night on the island of Sainte-Marguerite. The work Sillage, on the other hand, explores light in its olfactory dimension, offering an unprecedented multisensory approach.

Mustapha Azeroual's installations are conceived as immersive experiences where the image is no longer just an object to observe, but an invitation to perceive in a different way. Between science and poetry, memory and experience, his works create shifting and emotional situations that resonate with the viewer's memories and perceptions. By pushing the boundaries of the photographic medium, he constantly redefines the contours of what it means to write with light.