
Mostafa Saifi Rahmouni
The Hand Of God, 2025
Digital print on paper, laminated on aluminium, iron wire
35 x 90 x 6 cm
13 3/4 x 35 3/8 x 2 3/8 in
13 3/4 x 35 3/8 x 2 3/8 in
Mostafa Saifi Rahmouni’s contributions recall the moral allegories of Francisco Goya’s Los Caprichos, where animal hybrids are used to critique human folly and social decay. They also resonate with the...
Mostafa Saifi Rahmouni’s contributions recall the moral allegories of Francisco Goya’s Los Caprichos, where animal hybrids are used to critique human folly and social decay. They also resonate with the more recent work of Berlinde De Bruyckere, whose contorted animal forms blur the lines between compassion and violence. Saifi Rahmouni distinguishes himself by fusing a sharply political edge with poetic restraint. "The Only Way" does not merely anthropomorphize animals, it repositions them as mirrors to human behavior, especially in times of crisis. It’s a Black Friday, Darwinistic sort of scene and Rahmouni represents the animal not as metaphor, but as method: a way to unearth the primal instincts which inevitably shape social life. This is also the case in "The Hand of God", a work he first presented in his solo exhibition at L’ISELP. The cold, brilliant blues and greens of the synthetic grass emphasize the cruelty of the scene – the bodies systematically destroyed, witnesses and proof of a distinctly human form of violence.
Mostafa Saifi Rahmouni works in photography, sculpture, and installation. He completed his post-master's degree at the HISK (Ghent), after training at the Institut National des Beaux-arts de Tétouan, then at ENSAV La Cambre (sculpture atelier). He has exhibited in Berlin (Rosalux), Brussels (Centrale-Lab and BOZAR as part of the Moussem Cities Festival), Beirut (Sharjah Biennial) and at the 63rd Salon de Montrouge. He has participated in numerous exhibitions in Europe, and is currently featured in Katerina Gregos’ exhibition “Why look at animals?” at the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) in Athens, Greece, having just completed a solo exhibition at L’ISELP Contemporary Art Center in Brussels. In 2017, he received the prize of the 9th Watch This Space biennial and the prize of the 9th edition of the young sculpture of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, then in 2019 the Sabam prize of the ArtContest competition. In 2020, he took part in the residency programme of the WIELS Centre for Contemporary Art. In 2021, he was selected by the Young Artist Fund organised by the Middelheim Museum in Antwerp and had a solo exhibition at M HKA in 2022.
Mostafa Saifi Rahmouni works in photography, sculpture, and installation. He completed his post-master's degree at the HISK (Ghent), after training at the Institut National des Beaux-arts de Tétouan, then at ENSAV La Cambre (sculpture atelier). He has exhibited in Berlin (Rosalux), Brussels (Centrale-Lab and BOZAR as part of the Moussem Cities Festival), Beirut (Sharjah Biennial) and at the 63rd Salon de Montrouge. He has participated in numerous exhibitions in Europe, and is currently featured in Katerina Gregos’ exhibition “Why look at animals?” at the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) in Athens, Greece, having just completed a solo exhibition at L’ISELP Contemporary Art Center in Brussels. In 2017, he received the prize of the 9th Watch This Space biennial and the prize of the 9th edition of the young sculpture of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, then in 2019 the Sabam prize of the ArtContest competition. In 2020, he took part in the residency programme of the WIELS Centre for Contemporary Art. In 2021, he was selected by the Young Artist Fund organised by the Middelheim Museum in Antwerp and had a solo exhibition at M HKA in 2022.