Mahi Binebine i m o n l S h

: S a m u e t o

P h o

Mahi Binebine was born in 1959 in Marrakesh. He studied in Paris and taught mathematics there for eight years, painting all the while.

After a number of exhibitions he became interested in writing and soon published several novels which have been translated into many languages. His latest novel, Cannibales, is excerpted in this issue of Banipal, and is both horrifying and enthralling as it unfolds the story of would-be refugees trying to get to Spain from Morocco by boat.

Mahi Binebine’s paintings are deceptively simple, almost austere; the many different mask faces are unspeaking, unseeing exposures of distress and oppression. “The masks,” the artist has said, “represent Africa. There, the mask does not hide but reveals and exposes. For me, the mask says what the mouth does not.” In the the masks he aims to synthesise the two cultures he belongs to, drawing on the source of inextinguishable inspiration which he feels from being divided between the two.

Since 1994 Binebine has lived in New York, painting and writing. He has held solo exhibitions in Paris, Rabat, New York, Washington DC, Düsseldorf and Cologne, and Melum in France.

Front Cover: Untitled, mixed technique, oil on paper, 66 x 22 cm

Untitled: mixed technique, oil on wood, 122 x 122 cm

Untitled: mixed technique, oil on paper, 30 x 25 cm