"DE FIL EN MÉMOIRE 2004–2026"

TWENTY-TWO YEARS OF WEAVES AND IMPRINTS

Art First Gallery, in collaboration with the Almada Foundation, is honored to present the exhibition "De fil en mémoire 2004–2026" by artist Soumiya Jalal, a pioneer of contemporary textile art in Morocco and internationally.

Twenty-two years after her first major solo exhibition at the Villa des Arts in Casablanca in 2004, Soumiya Jalal returns to the very walls she holds so dear. This anniversary exhibition, titled "De fil en mémoire: 2004–2026," is more than a mere retrospective; it celebrates two decades of a rigorous artistic quest in which textiles become the primary language of memory, time, and territory.

Soumiya Jalal’s textile art transcends craftsmanship to become a form of conceptual expression. Each thread—stretched, crossed, or knotted—represents a timeline, a fragment of sedimented memory. Through weaving, the artist reactivates ancestral gestures to both heal and celebrate the wounds of the past. The weave becomes a map of memory, a network of invisible bonds connecting the past of 2004 to the present of 2026.

At the heart of this artistic vision, Soumiya Jalal employs a distinctive chromatic palette: white. Far from representing emptiness, white—in Jalal’s work—signifies fullness, a luminous vibration that captures the very essence of Casablanca. This subtle monochromatic quality evokes the coastal light, the city’s modernist architecture, and the purity of a blank page upon which collective and individual memories are inscribed. Here, white becomes a sanctuary, a silence, and a revelation. "De fil en mémoire" invites visitors to journey through twenty-two years of suspended creation—an invitation to experience the gentle touch of a textile memory that resists oblivion.

Co-founder, Art First Galerie

Artist bio

Soumiya Jalal is a Moroccan textile artist, architect, and urban planner whose work lies at the intersection of contemporary art, architecture, and textile craftsmanship. Trained at the École Spéciale d'Architecture in Paris, she early on developed a conceptual approach to space, material, and structure before focusing her research on textile construction—a field she further explored in Montreal during the late 1990s.

For over twenty-five years, her work has explored the capacity of textiles to transform into architecture, sculpture, and landscape. Through monumental installations crafted from natural fibers—such as wool, hemp, sisal, raffia, and even copper—she turns humble materials into immersive forms that interrogate memory, time, and the transmission of heritage. Her practice is grounded in the repetition of gesture, the tension between fragility and resilience, and a constant dialogue between material and light.

Regarded as a pioneer of contemporary textile art in Morocco, Soumiya Jalal has developed a unique practice in which the legacy of artisanal techniques serves as the foundation for a resolutely contemporary artistic expression. Her approach draws upon traditional know-how while liberating these methods from their utilitarian functions, situating them instead within the realms of installation art and sculpture.

Her career has been marked by numerous exhibitions in Morocco and abroad. Since her debut textile art exhibition in Paris in 1999, she has pursued an ongoing exploration of fiber as an artistic language. In 2001, she received the Innovation Award at the Maison & Objet trade fair in Paris. Her work has been showcased at major cultural institutions and was recently featured at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Alongside her artistic practice, she has spent over two decades dedicated to research and the transmission of knowledge regarding textile crafts, contributing to the appreciation and reinterpretation of Morocco’s material heritage. This dual role—as both artist and builder—fuels a body of work in which each piece becomes a meeting ground for collective memory and sensory experience.

In 2026, she returns to the Villa des Arts in Casablanca, twenty-two years after the solo exhibition held there in 2004. The exhibition De Fil en Mémoire (2004–2026) offers a retrospective of her career while showcasing her most recent research, affirming the unique position her work holds within the contemporary Moroccan art landscape today.

Soumiya Jalal lives and works in Marrakech. Her work pursues a sensitive exploration of the connections between architecture, material, light, and memory, transforming textiles into a space for contemplation and transformation.

From the artist

For me, this exhibition marks a very special moment. It is a return—a return to the Villa des Arts, where I first exhibited over twenty years ago. It is a return to the Villa des Arts in Casablanca. It is also a return to Casablanca, the city where I forged a unique approach to architecture, heritage, and creativity in all its forms.

Conceived as a journey between memory and transformation, the exhibition brings together more than twenty-five years of intense, dedicated research. On the ground floor, "The Memory of Gestures" pays tribute to the craftsmanship and living memory embedded in every movement and in the passing of the thread. Upstairs, a retrospective traces the evolution of a body of work that has led me from architecture to textile art, fostering a constant dialogue between animal, plant, and mineral materials, light, and structure.

My creative practice has always explored the connections between memory, place, and contemporary art. For me, creating means transforming material into language, gesture into artwork, and time into a slow immersion into the depths of my own sensibility.

Soumiya Jalal, Textile Artist