The Immortal Ones in Essaouira: Celebrating Arab Asliṭ and Abd al-Rahman al-Zayani
In a space filled with wind and light, Essaouira reemerges as a geography of memory. The exhibition “The Immortal Ones in Essaouira,” currently hosted at the Kasbah Gallery, is not merely a tribute to two historical figures; it is a passage that transcends imagery, venturing into the hidden realm where two artistic memories resonate—Arab Asliṭ and Abd al-Rahman al-Zayani—who have turned art into a spiritual space and a language of resistance against erasure. Their art does not extol the immortality of the body, but rather the continuity of vision, what remains when everything else fades away.
In the work of Arab Asliṭ, Arabic letters transform into breath, rhythm, and light. The art transcends mere craftsmanship to become essence. The recurring golden circle in his works acts as a cosmic heart where the boundaries between the visible and the invisible blur. Letters become energetic vibrations, touching silence as they touch the sacred. His paintings are not prayers to be read; rather, they are an open quest for balance between line and void, thought and light. Asliṭ does not depict letters; he liberates them. From this liberation arises a Moroccan signature in abstract calligraphy, merging aesthetic contemplation with spiritual clarity, where material becomes spirit, and color transforms into a speaking meditation.
On the other hand, Abd al-Rahman al-Zayani embodies the other side of the same breath. His paintings emerge from shock, tension, and the ignition of color as sparks of existence. His sharp lines and blazing spaces echo internal struggles, where colors become tests of truth. His canvas is not a description of the world, but a call for memory to rise from its ashes. The winds of Essaouira, which erase to write, blow deep within his works, carrying the creative contradiction between erasure and emergence.
Al-Zayani does not reclaim reality but interprets it from a point of internal light, a light that is wounded yet perpetually renewing. Perhaps therein lies the secret of his artistic immortality: the ability to transform memory into flame and color into a language of survival. In this post-existential dialogue between two departed artists, Essaouira turns into a symbolic womb that embraces meaning. A city on the borders of elements and civilizations, it has always been a space that attracts artists who see the act of creation as a mode of existence itself. Its maritime light, white walls, and open Atlantic horizon have made it a sanctuary for all forms of the unseen. The Kasbah Gallery, led by art lover Kabir Attar, does not merely showcase works but also revives the thread of collective memory, giving it a new form of permanence.
The title of the exhibition, “The Immortal Ones in Essaouira,” carries a critical connotation that transcends its surface meaning. Here, immortality is not a glorification of the past but a metaphor for the continuity of meaning. To be immortal is to continue speaking through one’s work, to enrich the perspective of the present. In this sense, the exhibition is a visual interpretation: reading a painting as consciousness reads itself. The works of Asliṭ and al-Zayani are not relics; they are living entities in the memory of Moroccan art.
Asliṭ strives towards inner light, while al-Zayani moves toward the blaze of the world. The former contemplates, while the latter ignites, both revealing a singular truth: that art is an act of hope in the face of mortality. By bringing them together in one space, Essaouira reminds us that art is a gentle resistance against nothingness, and that colors preserve the unsaid and what does not die. As Ibn Arabi said: “True vision is one of the remnants of prophecy, and it is one of the illuminations of the spirit in the awakening of the heart.” Thus, art, too, is a vision that does not extinguish, remaining vibrant as long as there is in humanity a trace of light or memory. And so, in the silence of the Kasbah’s walls, beneath the breaths of the Atlantic wind, Essaouira continues to safeguard the secret of its creators’ immortality. Arab Asliṭ and Abd al-Rahman al-Zayani are no longer just names; they have become breaths, rhythms, and shards of light. They embody a singular aesthetic and spiritual promise: that art, at its core, is a vow against death.
