MOHAMMED EL HAJOUI - AKKA ROOM TAKEOVER: Innesto

Throughout October, Mohammed El Hajoui has taken over a room at AKKA Project in Venice, transforming it into a space for artistic experimentation and embarking on a research project titled “Innesto.”

This project delves into the intricate relationship between his two cultural identities, drawing inspiration from two architectural references: the Hassan Tower in Rabat and the former Church of Santa Maria della Misericordia in Venice. The Hassan Tower stands as the sole visible remnant of an ambitious effort to build the largest mosque in Morocco. However, this grand project remained unfinished. Meanwhile, the former Church of Santa Maria della Misericordia temporarily became a mosque during the 2015 Venice Art Biennale, following an art installation by Christoph Büchel. This artistic intervention, initially conceived for its exhibition context, transitioned within days into an actual place of worship, consequently leading to its closure. In exploring the relationship between these two environments,

El Hajoui highlighted two distinct forms of absence: one arising from incompleteness and the other from interruption. Through the fragmentation, recomposition, and layering of architectural elements and geometric motifs from both contexts, the artist examined how these absences might resonate with one another, rather than remain separate narratives of loss. Architecture thus became a tool for negotiating identity and belonging, while absence was reimagined not as a void, but as a generative condition: a point of encounter from which something new can arise. "Innesto” suggests that it is perhaps within this shared experience of absence that two seemingly divergent forms of lack can converge.