Sara Ouhaddou
∗1986, France
Born in France into a family of Moroccan origins, Sara Ouhaddou interweaves the two cultures in a continuous dialogue. Her research focuses on traditional art forms and local crafts, which she adopts to create contemporary artworks that serve as a common thread between past and present. She often works with local communities, particularly craftspeople and researchers, transforming the process of reaching the final form of the work into a projectof learning, exchange of knowledge and stories. The work designed forTheParliament of Marmots reflects on the traditional wood art of Val Gardena. The artist collaborated with a local sculptor, Helene Demetz, to create small woodsculptures that are displayed in a shop window in the centre of Ortisei, usually occupied by local crafts. In the shop window, the artist created a setting inspiredby the words of the poet Mririda N’Ait Attik the Amazigh. The sculptures, depicting animals indigenous to Val Gardena, such as bears, snakes, wolves, foxesand eagles, are inspired by the art of zoomorphic pottery, practised in the Atlas mountains in Morocco since the Neolithic period. Traditionally modeled in clay(or wood, in Val Gardena) by women in front of the bread ovens or the fires where food is cooked, these simple and timeless figures may be used as toys, amulets and protectors for small children.
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