Curator Yasmin Sarnefors on identity, opacity, and the shifting language of the portrait across Africa and its diaspora.
9 April 2026
Alice Sartori
In ‘What Faces Do Not Say’, portraiture is disrupted. It is no longer just about recognising faces; instead, it becomes a space filled with ambiguity, memories, and acts of resistance. Curator Yasmin Sarnefors speaks on the exhibition, which features artists whose work questions the idea that a face can reveal a solid identity. Their art moves between showing bodies, landscapes, and archival materials, exploring what cannot be easily seen: psychological states, political meanings, and deeply personal stories. Sarnefors explains how her varied background shapes her curatorial choices and how the exhibition invites viewers to accept uncertainty rather than seek clear answers.
Mohamed SaÏd, Chair, the meeting, 2021. Oil on canvas / Huile sur toile 130 x 150 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Alice Sartori: ‘What Faces Do Not Say’ frames portraiture as a space of uncertainty rather than recognition. What led you to approach the portrait this way?
Yasmin Sarnefors: This approach comes from something very personal. Growing up with Moroccan, Spanish, and Swedish roots, I often felt I didn’t fully belong anywhere. Moving between cultures made me aware of how fluid and complex identity can be; it changes with context, memory, and perception. That made me question how portraiture usually tries to define or fix someone, since portraits are often expected to reveal who a person is and what they represent.
At the same time, we live in a world where faces appear everywhere on social media, and people often judge or make assumptions based only on appearance. I wanted to question this, showing that a face rarely tells the whole story. I began to think about how a portrait could avoid simple definitions, allowing for uncertainty, silence, or mystery. I wanted viewers to see that these artists are not just representatives of a place or group; they are individuals with complex practices that go far beyond their origins.
Chama Bekri, Untitled, 2024. Acrylic on canvas / Acrylique sur toile 120 x 120 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
In ‘What Faces Do Not Say,’ the artists move between the face, the body, the landscape, and the archive. How do these shifting registers expand the idea of portraiture beyond human likeness?
Traditionally, portraiture focuses on resemblance, especially the face. Building on this, with this exhibition, I wanted to show that identity can appear in many ways – through the body, materials, gestures, or even absence. For example, in Yasmine Laraqui’s paintings of family archives, the brushstrokes feel like acts of remembering, and the figures appear like distant memories. In Beau Disundi Nzazi’s work, the body is absent, yet the cardboard evokes histories of circulation and exchange. Across these approaches, the portrait becomes less about showing someone and more about what escapes and what resonates beyond the surface.
Nyaba Léon Ouédraogo, Théâtre populaire 8, 2019. 50 x 50 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Christophe Person, Paris and Brussels.
The exhibition suggests that painting can resist imposed identities. How did political and psychological dimensions shape your selection of artists?
I selected artists who are deeply interested in how identity is formed and represented. Politically, many question identities imposed by history, society, or dominant narratives, asking who has the power to define a person’s image. Psychologically, their work explores inner life, vulnerability, and uncertainty, thereby building on but complicating the question of imposed identity. Faces are sometimes hidden, bodies transformed, and narratives left open to interpretation.
For example, Lassana Sarre’s paintings depict fragile, unstable bodies, questioning Black presence in painting, while Mohamed Saïd Chair uses gesture and posture to show how identity can be performed and perceived. Through these different approaches, the exhibition highlights how identity is never fixed and cannot be reduced to a single meaning.
I selected artists who are deeply interested in how identity is formed and represented. Politically, many question identities imposed by history, society, or dominant narratives, asking who has the power to define a person’s image. Psychologically, their work explores inner life, vulnerability, and uncertainty, thereby building on but complicating the question of imposed identity. Faces are sometimes hidden, bodies transformed, and narratives left open to interpretation.
For example, Lassana Sarre’s paintings depict fragile, unstable bodies, questioning Black presence in painting, while Mohamed Saïd Chair uses gesture and posture to show how identity can be performed and perceived. Through these different approaches, the exhibition highlights how identity is never fixed and cannot be reduced to a single meaning.
Beau Disundi Nzazi, Dad’s Tears, 2025. 59 x 39. Courtesy of the artist and AKKA Project, Dubai and Venice.
Many of the works seem to operate through fragmentation, disappearance, or transformation. What does this language of dissolution allow artists to articulate that traditional portraiture might suppress?
Through fragmentation, disappearance, and transformation, these artists can share ideas that are often missed in traditional portraits: feelings, vulnerability, and how identity changes. In Nadjib Ben Ali’s work, for example, soccer players look like divided, ghostlike figures with changed faces and bodies. This method captures emotions, tension, and the psychological depth of the subjects—showing that a portrait can reveal more than just what someone looks like.
Nadjib Ben Ali, OSBORN EFFECT III (AUTOTUNE), 2024. 61 x 50 cm. Courtesy of the artist and T H E P I L L ®, Istanbul and Paris.
‘What Faces Do Not Say’ brings together artists from diverse contexts across Africa and its diaspora. What kinds of dialogues or tensions emerged between their approaches to the portrait?
Although the artists come from diverse backgrounds, many are united by concerns with visibility, memory, and representation, yet these concepts manifest in diverse visual forms. Some works are intimate and introspective, while others are performative or visually dynamic. Certain artists focus on the body, others on materials, archives, or fragmented imagery, cultivating both tension and resonance. For instance, Chama Bekri’s subtle, contemplative paintings examine the body in an almost therapeutic manner, whereas Ibrahim Meïté Sikely’s layered, narrative-driven works synthesise classical allusions, popular culture, and personal history. The exhibition thus becomes a space where these varied approaches coexist without prescribing a singular narrative.
Lassana Sarre, Les rencontres, 99 Gansevoort St, New York, 2025. Courtesy of the artist.
The exhibition is staged in an old apartment within La Taverne, a space marked by memory and time. How does this domestic and historical setting shape the way viewers encounter the works?
Since I grew up in Marrakech, I always wanted to use an old space in Gueliz for an exhibition, believing it would add character and history. When I found this apartment—part of one of the city’s oldest restaurants, La Taverne, and opposite the iconic Cinema Le Colisée—I knew it was ideal. The apartment itself had stood abandoned for over twenty years.
I also always wanted the art to feel closer to people. Over the years, many people have told me that galleries can feel intimidating, and they don’t dare enter. With Offrecord, I wanted to change that.
Having a ground-floor space open to the street allowed many visitors – and often the regulars of the restaurant – to step in by chance, often asking, “What is this new space?” This made the experience feel alive and spontaneous, and allowed people from very different backgrounds to experience the exhibition.
Yasmine Laraqui, Garden party. 2024.30 x 40 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
The title ‘What Faces Do Not Say’ suggests silence, concealment, or opacity. How do you understand the role of opacity in contemporary portraiture, particularly in relation to identity and representation?
Opacity allows a face to retain its mystery rather than being fully explained or defined. In a world of fast-moving images, I was interested in what we can’t see at first glance. Opacity creates space for ambiguity and complexity. It invites the viewer to pause, reflect, and engage with something that can’t be fully grasped.
El Hadi Fekrouni, Uncomfortable snooze, 2024. 130 x 100 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
If the portrait in this exhibition becomes a question rather than an answer, what kinds of new readings or possibilities do you hope viewers carry with them after experiencing ‘What Faces Do Not Say’?
I hope viewers leave with more questions than answers. Rather than rushing to “understand” someone, I want them to reflect on how identity is shaped, and to consider how much of what we see is our own projection. The exhibition welcomes multiple interpretations. Meaning shifts depending on the viewer. Above all, I hope it fosters a slower, more attentive way of seeing, where uncertainty and ambiguity enrich the experience. The artists’ work stands in its full complexity, beyond categories or origins.
This exhibition was on view at La Taverna, 23 Bd Mohamed Zerktouni, Marrakech, from January 22 til February 22, 2026.
