Lights Of Morocco

What does Morocco look like today? This is the question Abdelaziz Zerrou invites us to reflect on through his installation, *Lights of Morocco* (2018). In this work, the artist draws upon the history of Moroccan goumiers—veterans enlisted by the French army during World War II (1939-1945)—to reconstruct the social and political realities of the present day. 

The installation, shaped as a crescent moon and a five-pointed star, both made of stainless steel, also reflects the complex relationship between tradition and modernity that continues to influence the country’s future, sixty-two years after its independence. Together, the crescent and the star form a symbol of political strength and the fertility of Moroccan land, an ancestral magic that still protects this region of the Muslim West. 

Despite this rich symbolism, Morocco—unlike its North African neighbors—does not feature the crescent on its national flag, for complex and historically ambiguous reasons. To soften the rigidity of the metal, Zerrou incorporates luminous elements around the geometric forms (semicircle and triangles). A total of 134 light bulbs, some lit and others not, represent both the souls who died for the Fatherland and the stark contrasts of development, as well as the obstacles to change that continue to challenge the nation.