Meriem Bennani is a Moroccan artist who lives and works in New York. Her research focuses on the concept of identity, a very recurring theme of reflection on the contemporary art scene. Growing up, emancipating oneself, living without maintaining a bond of continuity with the past is the struggle of our time. The consequences of globalization, such as uprooting from the world of origin, breaking the bonds of continuity with one's origins and access to role models of absolute novelty, constitute an explosive cocktail that contributes to shaping fragile cultural identities and causes profound crises that very often spill over into gender issues. In her recent intervention at the Fondazione Prada, Bennani stages a fantastic narrative entitled For My Best Family, created with a video language that borrows style from YouTube, reality TV, documentaries and mobile phone shots, completely reinvented with atmospheres inspired by Magical Realism, imbued with humor and populated by anthropomorphic animals. For Aicha, the new art film directed by Meriem Bennani with Orian Barki and produced by John Michael Boling and Jason Coombs, follows Bouchra, a 35-year-old Moroccan filmmaker living in New York. The jackal-like character is told as she writes an autobiographical film that addresses the impact her homosexuality has had on her mother Aicha, a cardiologist living in Casablanca. Fact and fiction overlap in an intimate and poetic tale that captures the infinite nuances of love and universal pain in the mother-daughter relationship.
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