Mallal in an interview with “The Amazigh World”: “The best art is what was produced under marginalization.”
Artist and Professor Moha Mellal in an interview with “The Amazigh World”:
We are proud to establish a high-end Amazigh art that blends world music with local rhythms and tone
“I did everything I could to implant a contemporary vision in the song committed to the southeast and bring all the interested young people to try to produce a song or album. The process was traced to the limits of the final production,” thus spoke the Amazigh artist, painter and professor Mohamed Mellal known as “Moha Melal” with his usual simplicity and spontaneity in these The window with the newspaper "The Amazigh World".
Mellal added: "It was a pride for all of us to establish a high-end Amazigh art that combines international music with local rhythms and tone from the depth of the large and small Atlas and the committed word." He considered that "with this approach, the southeastern musical groups were able to impose themselves in the arena despite all the compulsions and the short period of time in which they appeared."
He said that "these groups remained committed to the Amazigh cause despite the noticeable decline in other Tamazgha regions." According to Mellal, the insult is due to "the fact that the southeastern regions are more marginalized than other regions geographically, economically, socially and culturally" and a group of other constraints that he listed in the following dialogue.
His interviewer/ Muntasir Ethri
We start with the classic question, how do you bring readers closer to the artist, painter and professor Moha Mellal?
Mohamed Mellal, better known as Moha Mellal, was born in 1965 in the village of Temlalt in Boumalne Dades, Tinghir Prefecture. A metaphor in the history of civilizations. Professor of Fine Arts since 1989 in Chichaoua, Ouarzazate. In charge of digital resources for 4 years at the Communication Department of the Directorate of Education of Ouarzazate. A collector of a range of Amazigh art and creativity such as painting, dyeing, poetry, music, singing, writing and criticism in the field of cinema and composition.
Productions: 11 music albums - two poetry collections (Anzwum and Afafa)
A historical book under the title: Plastic Arts in Morocco, a critical historical vision - a set of scenarios (for short and long films and one series)
Tell us about the beginnings, their compulsions and challenges, and the arduous path until Malal became a beacon and a teacher for the
? musical ensembles in Asamer
My beginning was in my small village Tamalat, before I entered primary school and since the age of five I have been drawing brilliantly. Rather, I was preoccupied with drawing portraits with all that nature provides from charcoal, tree and plant leaves, and leaves drawn from cement and plaster bags. The village was completely cut off from the outside world so that no road passed through. The only road is a very rugged path for pedestrians only, linking the village to the weekly market in the center of Boumalne Dades, about 15 km away, because of its severity and its danger. Because village women and the elderly are waiting to go to the market, and often some of them fall and may die and be carried in the shroud. This is the way I will take to continue my studies in the preparatory school in Boumalne Dades every day for two years. All the children of the village left school after obtaining the primary certificate and we had to go on our feet through the Jujud Shroud from five in the morning and return after six in the dark, especially in the days of winter, cold and snowfall. Drawing was what made me become attached to school. I could not bear to stay away from paper and pen. Many teachers encourage me to draw, but they come from their cities with dye, brush and real drawing papers. I was famous among students and professors for drawing and I used to fill the tables with portraits of teachers and students.
I enjoyed walking daily 30 km between the village and middle school. I finished high school despite the presence of wolves and foxes and my mother’s growing anxiety, but this pleasure in walking provided me with an atmosphere of free thinking and imagination, and I had all the time to create a surreal world, especially because I love stories The photographer that my father used to bring at his work in a foreign metal company in the Bouskoor area since I was young, and it may be the source of my attachment to drawing in a way that made me possess an early skill in artistic calligraphy that will make me give drawing lessons in schematic drawing colleges in Switzerland during the years starting from 1998, and I was chosen to represent Morocco Years 1991-1992 in studios in Kronobel, France. Rather, I will leave college to devote myself to the subject of arts to graduate as a professor of this subject.
? This is in the field of painting, and what about the musical field
Music, my second companion after painting since I was young, where I made my first instruments and we sang, and we even memorized all the songs of Nass El Ghiwane, Mashaheb and Iznzaren. Since 1983, when I was in secondary school in Boumalne Dades, I began to write my first words, and I and some friends in the village used to sing since our childhood as a band and spend holidays nights in a cave not far from home, singing until the morning. And 1990, where I still keep more than 12 cassette tapes of 90 meters carrying more than 45 songs of my words and melodies and playing with different friends in the village. I also keep the notebook in which I have been writing all the words and drawings since 1985 when I was a student at Agadir College And I discovered the Amazigh sense more with my discovery of Tifinagh on letters that some friends from Mali were getting from their mothers.
From the runway, I began to write poems bearing the concern of the Amazigh identity, and with the beginning of my attraction to the songs of Idir White Menkleit, my identity journey began in the melody and the word to this right.
? When did you release your first professional albums
1992 will witness my first album in a professional way - Asif Nadades 1 - through its production, I became acquainted with all the problems that accompany the creative process in music and its production. Thus, with the help of my brothers, we created a small studio with equipment that was difficult to obtain at the time, as well as easily acquainted with the mysteries of recording, editing and production techniques. We produced a lot of songs with a huge and creative group in the musical field of Ouarzazate, such as Mabrouk Abdelhak playing the saxophone, clarinet and different types of flute, Mohamed Bolgaal playing the orc, Said Mourad on the guitar along with Farid Amskan and Kamal Bouallouz, Younes Karachiou on the instrument The bass and after him Muhammad Majoud, Mustafa Jabrawi in everything related to rhythms.
We participated in the largest festivals in Morocco, such as Timitar, Mawazine, Tangaz, and Visa for Music ... in addition to participations abroad, such as France, Belgium, the Canary Islands, Italy and the Netherlands.
- Most if we do not say that all the bands “Basamer” have contributed and helped in their emergence and the emergence of their albums and songs, what is the secret of this generosity, so to
? speak
I did everything I could to implant a contemporary vision in the song committed to the southeast and bring all the interested young people to try to produce a song or an album. The process was traced to the limits of final production in the city of Casablanca with the help of a friend of the Amazigh song in the southeast, the son of the city of Agadir, Mas Saleh Ikram (Ethra Music), who without him A committed Southeast song may not be born. This is how the style of Amun styl appeared and carried the torch by a hill of creators such as: Mubarak Olarabi, Omar Ait Said, Mustafa Al-Wardi, Takraula, Omnai, Tawarket, Ankmar, Tanalt, Tigramt, Tasota Nimal, Tarwa Nteniri, Imoda...
“I did everything I could to instill a contemporary vision in song committed to the Southeast.”
The studio was like a school where we learned many things during recording, and we were discussing Amazigh inspiration, creativity, imposing quality in words, melody and performance, and getting to know the literature of production in general.
Most of the groups who were apprenticed by Mellal sing boldly and courageously about the suffering, concerns and problems of the Amazighs, and they direct sharp criticisms about the marginalization of the Amazighs. Why?
It was a pride for all of us to establish a high-end Amazigh art that combines international music with local rhythms and tone from the depth of the large and small Atlas and the committed word.
With this approach, the southeastern musical groups were able to impose themselves in the arena despite all the constraints and the short period of time in which they appeared. These groups remained committed to the Amazigh cause, despite the noticeable decline in other Tamazgha regions. The reason may be due to:
The fact that the southeast regions are more marginalized than other regions geographically, economically, socially and culturally...
Absence of job opportunities- Absence of colleges and universities- Absence of festivals- Absence of encouraging creativity- Absence of activated cultural vehicles…
They are the least participating teams in the festivals
The songs of the southeast are not broadcast on national and private radios, as well as on TV channels. Rather, it was removed by adopting the radio division into what is from: the Middle Atlas, Souss and the Rif.
In addition to the fact that the Amazigh creators in the song committed to the region are all educated (students and employees) and aware of all the temptations that impede the development of the Amazigh in its regions and its inhabitants...
In general, how do you see the reality of Amazigh art and what is
? lacking today
Today, a number of things have changed that concern Amazigh art and creativity. It seems that the rest of the bands and artists in other fields such as theater, composition and cinema have begun to fuse in the strongly marketed image and began to lose their privacy and special touch that provided them with strength, when they left the scene. The teams due to different circumstances, including the departure of each individual towards his place of study or work or abroad, which makes continuing the group work impossible, which will result in a unilateral continuation of creativity, that is, the artist prefers to work alone instead of the group due to the difficulties in meeting, exercises and unifying ideas and Access to posts with more people. The commitment, the power of the word, and the in-depth research into music has become absent in most of the new works. As a result, the level of the Amazigh cultural song has declined in all its harmony at a time when we need it to complete the great path it has made and the gains it has achieved from the beginning.
What is Professor Mellal's advice to artists who are concerned with
? the Amazigh cause
As a piece of advice for every Amazigh artist who is concerned about his cultural identity, I say: continue to produce with quality and enjoyment, for the best art is what is produced under marginalization.
“The best art is what was produced under marginalization.”
Amazigh also stands out in your artistic paintings and is creative in this field. What is the difference between it and music and singing for Moha Mellal, and where does he find more comfort?
If my songs are the voice behind my sad philosophy, my paintings are a mirror that reflects the aesthetic side of my optimistic imagination.
I studied the history of international art and the philosophy of art and painted since I was a child. My brush settled on discovering the beauty of the Amazigh culture in which I am still swimming and discovering its virgin depths by all methods and techniques without caring about the border concepts such as realism, figurative and abstract, and not all the names of the resonant schools, enjoy expressing what I want. And what I believe in in my own ways and looking for the pleasure of color and touch in fashion and faces from my culture, my language and my identity and nothing else.
How does Professor Mellal manage his time between teaching,music,
? painting, civic work and family
In the past, things were arranged in a natural way and without effort. What I do is listen to my feelings and fulfill the desire for creativity in its time. I draw and write poetry, compose words, gather my bands for rehearsals, record for other artists, and work as a teacher sincerely without the slightest problem.
“I am thinking of relative retirement so that I can devote myself to writing new scenarios and ideas.”
But now it is difficult to reconcile all these things, especially since some creative models have been added to the agenda, which has become full. Writing and criticism in the field of composition and cinema, smart board drawing and teaching the third dimension in drawing and animation, along with my joining the Directorate of Education and assigning me to digital resources, where he produced many capsules and reportages, and managed professionals for the production of short films, script writing, storyboard and other areas related to the image. Which I intend to contribute to the advancement as well.
But I have always been creative and continue to produce songs and paintings while I have moved away from recording for others with the emergence of equipped studios and the possibility of each artist creating a private home studio with the availability of information for education or remote work.
Although I am thinking after a year of relative retirement so that I can devote myself to writing new scenarios and ideas, a biography and creating different artistic productions, but rather working with those interested in the image and cinema to create high quality productions with creative competition.
? A word about the late artist Mubarak Olarabi
Mubarak Olarabi is a torch that will never be extinguished, an artist who did not want us to enjoy his fine art more. If he stayed among us, the path of the Amazigh song would have been in a permanent upward trend, and we may not witness this stagnation with his genius, his intelligence and his constant communication with all activists, creators and others. His loss is a great loss to his family, his friends and the Amazigh culture in general.
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