It seems that these days no (other) act can be more radical than slowness – understood not as sluggishness (or lethargy), but losing speed, braking – and how curative slowness might be a tool of restoration against the systemic pressures that condition our contemporary experience of time, of being constantly present.

- Dominik Czechowski, excerpt from Hicham Gardaf: In Praise of Slowness

To celebrate Hicham Gardaf winning the Mast Photography Prize and his second Artists Support artwork donation, Clara Zevi is delighted to present In Praise of Slowness. This is Gardaf’s second UK solo show and will be on view by appointment at 41 Davies Street from November 16 - December 16, 2023.

Gardaf began making this new body of work when he was nominated for, and subsequently awarded, the MAST Photography Prize earlier this year. The project examines the act of slowing down and of waiting: counterpoints to the pace of our contemporary life.

The artist’s work has consistently explored the dynamic transformation of cities and the politics of urban spaces. For six months in 2022, Gardaf followed Tangier’s few remaining bleach vendors, a small group of men who weave through the city streets shouting out to advertise their goods for sale. These men are anachronisms in a rapidly modernising environment, they sell their wares in a manner far removed from today's digital “click and buy” economy. Gardaf was attracted to the vendors as they operate within a unique, almost archaic economic system, untouched by the norms of contemporary consumerism. In this system, the transaction is initiated by the customer's attentive ear, waiting for the vendor's call. Miss the call, and you miss the opportunity; no one to stop them, and the vendors move on.

However, as Tangier industrialises, the traditional rhythms of life, like the familiar chants of these roaming sellers, are vanishing. The city's transition embodies a shift from a culture of slowness and presence to one driven by speed and efficiency, leading to the gradual disappearance of such local economies.

Each photograph on display has been staged and is based on an image or memory related to the disappearing profession of bleach selling. In a black and white diptych, one photograph depicts a wooden table topped with a line of water bottles containing bleach. Its counterpart shows the exact same table, with the collection of bottles missing. The table, made from an old wooden door laid horizontally on two vegetable crates, was spotted in a marketplace. Taken by this composition, Gardaf toiled to acquire the table from its owner, and after being met with scepticism and suspicion, he was able to recreate the market scene on the roof of his home in Tangier.

In Street Conversation and Untitled (diptych), the bodies of two women overlap in such a way that they appear as just one. The figure closest to us shields that behind her, and obscures her from view. The woman’s disappearance echoes the fading rituals of the bleach salesman.

Works depicting Khalid, one of the last vendors, lead visitors into the main exhibition space. Gardaf photographed Khalid as he shouts out the word ‘lejía’ – ‘bleach’ in Spanish, which is still used in northern Morocco. The largest photograph in the exhibition, Untitled (Red Funnel), centres on a large yellow container, topped with a red funnel. Its backdrop is an abandoned gas station that betrays many layers of urban life and transformation.

To celebrate and record In Praise of Slowness and Gardaf winning the MAST Photography Prize, a small catalogue has been produced with a text by Dominik Czechowski. In addition to the photographs exhibited here, Gardaf also made a short film shot on 16mm.

Hicham Gardaf (b. 1989) in Tangier, Morocco lives and works in London. His practice is concerned with transformations of the contemporary landscape in relation to time, space, and the politics of place. He is particularly drawn to the social spaces we inhabit, such as buildings, streets, and cities, and he researches the practices we apply to these places by reshaping, appropriating, and controlling them. Gardaf is the winner of the 2023 MAST Photography Prize and is currently working on a commission for the Frac, Bordeaux. Gardaf’s work has been shown at the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Towner Eastbourne, Eastbourne; MACAAL, Marrakech, Guest Projects, London; International Center of Photography, New York; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris.

For inquiries, please contact Clara Zevi: info@artists-support.com