Under Destruction — Ismail Alaoui Fdili at MACAAL

Presented in MACAAL’s Artist Room, Under Destruction is an exhibition by Ismail Alaoui Fdili examining changing urban landscapes and the memories produced through demolition. Organised as part of the third edition of Mai de la Photo, devoted to “Memory(ies)”, it runs from 2 May to 2 August 2026 and is curated by Farah Maakel, MACAAL’s Head of Exhibitions. The project developed through demolition sites observed in Cambodia, France and Morocco. For the Marrakech presentation, the artist focuses on Casablanca, his home city, and on the gradual disappearance of early twentieth-century buildings around the old medina. He records the final moments of these structures while following residents, workers and material salvagers who continue to live, work and transmit knowledge within a neighbourhood being erased. The photographs become large images printed on concrete, cement and fibre-cement slabs. They are accompanied by cast-concrete stools inspired by those used by residents watching their homes being demolished, and by a black-and-white documentary film carried by the voice of a medina inhabitant. Construction material becomes both the subject and the physical support of image and memory. Alaoui Fdili’s installation extends beyond architectural heritage. It addresses precarious labour, informal economies, the symbolic value of marginalised occupations and the way cities preserve or suppress the stories of the people who build them. Produced with local craftspeople, the exhibition foregrounds resilience and forms of transmission that persist within a rapidly changing urban fabric.