First of all, this round table will allow us to approach the work by both artists, whose careers have always held gender issues very present, although from very diverse perspectives and techniques. The initial introductions will be followed by a dialogue on issues closely related with the situation of both of these women artists, who live between Europe and the Arab world and have lengthy international careers behind them. They will analyze issues such as the status of female Arab artists in the contemporary art circuit, including the challenges and opportunities that they face, and the relationship between tradition and today’s art in the Arab world. The participants will share their experiences as visual arts professionals on an international scene in which gender issues seem to have been widely placed at the center of public policies and institutional agendas.

Zoulikha Bouabdellah is a French-Algerian artist who lives in Morocco. She creates her work using the media of installations, drawings, video and photography. She deals with the effects of globalization, especially on women, and questions its representations with humor in a subversive way. She advocates the artist’s freedom by questioning the labels that are often imposed upon her as a result of a certain context and her personal history. 

Amina Benbouchta is a Moroccan artist who lives between Casablanca, Morocco and Paris, France. Her work forms a dialogue between everyday life, her surrounding environment and human existence, above all in relation with women in the public and private spheres. This artist has developed a corpus of work rooted in the exploration of painting’s limits, transforming concepts and observations into images, sculpture and installations. Moreover, Benbouchta has started up several projects, including the journal Les Alignés and Collective 212, in order to give a voice to emerging artists. 

Sabrina Amrani is a French-Algerian gallery owner who resides in Madrid, where she runs two galleries. She is committed to emerging voices which veer away from mainstream discourse and experiment with different media and formats to produce art with major social, cultural and political undertones. Her concept of the gallery is that of an open, constantly changing space designed to become a cross-cultural and artistic meeting point. Both Zoulikha Bouabdellah and Amina Benbouchta are artists appearing at her gallery.