BEYOND the Walls Painting

Abdelaziz Haounati- in short “Zi Hounti”– was raised in a small village in the southern region of Morocco. After losing his mother to the birth of his sibling, his aptitude and natural skill as a fine artist began to shape and mold him. Despite the lack of support for his artistic endeavors from his family, he continued to strive, leaving his home at the tender age of 15 to pursue his art. His paintings feature vibrant and energetic portraits of Moroccan people in a semi-figurative style. Hounti’s subjects are filled with intense emotion, communicating through indescribable facial expressions, asymmetric body postures, and a lustrous color palette. Each painting features a rich and provocative scheme of shades and color blends which breathes life into each piece of his artwork. Strokes of Hounti’s brush parade through every piece and the range of vibrancy can be found in unexpected twists. Zi travels all the time from city to city, pursuing inspiration and studying the lives and moods of people in his country. His art witnesses the change of each city shifting from a traditional classical age to a contemporary modern one, and even though this change may sometimes be perilous for people in North Africa, his work shows that there is a way to preserve the authenticity of this region while adapting to the pace of the world. In 2016 he moved from the quiet village where he lived to the city of Casablanca, wanting to experience and explore a new Urbanism. His art began to take form, influenced by the modern architecture he found there. Hounti now works on projects for culture brand identity, striving to identify the elements and keys that represent the culture of Morocco and north Africa. This project is more than just a painting- it’s a whole story of subject and object. Many other creators and artists all over the world will participate and contribute in order to inspire people to question their actions and behaviors toward nature and their environment. The aim of this project, says Zi, is to stop producing and consuming and think a bit for a while: why are you creating and what are your intentions in doing so?