The Révélations fair closes this Sunday. RFI is a partner of the Biennale of crafts and contemporary creation which pays tribute to crafts from around the world. This year the African continent is in the spotlight. Jamil Bennani, present for this 5th edition, is a Moroccan master cabinetmaker, designer and sculptor. He is constantly in search and offers creations marked by modernity with an attachment to authenticity and Moroccan design.
In Morocco, I am nicknamed the sculptor of emotions. I work in the present moment, nature, the gaze
Jamil Bennani, master cabinetmaker, designer and sculptor
“I sculpt, I have a multidisciplinary workshop that has existed for thirty-four years. The youngest in my workshop is an extraordinary apprentice carpenter, he is deaf-mute, he learned the trade with me. Today he fully understands me. He is constantly with me, he helps me. There is a symbiosis between us and other people too, other carpenters who have become cabinetmakers. We really have a team of craftsmen, which allows me to go very far in my research and my creation. »
Born into a family of artists, Jamil Bennani has a dual culture with a German mother and a Moroccan painter father. As a child he has a special relationship with wood, matter and form. Without a baccalaureate, he followed a course in a vocational school in Belgium to obtain a diploma as a master cabinetmaker. He then continued his studies at a school of interior architecture in Paris. Back in Morocco, he joined the family business, his father also being an interior designer. Working with wood, for Jamil Bennaniit is a permanent dialogue with matter.
“When we work with a material like wood with a particular dynamic, we sometimes realize that in the end we are taking a direction but that the material offers us another path. Creation evolves according to all this energy that you give to matter. Wood is such a respectful material that we always have a very strong link and contact between the creator and the wood. Sometimes we make mistakes, it happens to us, I say to myself ‘this is not the time! ‘ Sometimes I put the room aside, I wait to find the solution so I can finish it. What is interesting is to know the limits to be part of a balance. »
Committed to the revaluation of Moroccan craft world, Jamil Bennani raises awareness and opens his workshop to the youngest.
“The children are not formatted at all, so whatever the subject matter, they teach us. On Wednesday afternoons, as they don’t have class, we often approach sculpture, I bring back polystyrene to manipulate a material that is easy to transform, wooden sticks and then we work on the color etc. The results are terrific. It is also to find the dominant intelligence of a child, who may not succeed in studies, but who finally can find his way and be happy. We see it when the parents come to pick up their child, there is another relationship. They didn’t know he was a little artistic genius. These are very strong moments, of sharing, where the transmissions are very interesting and intense. »
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