Mohamed Babahoum was born about thirty kilometers from Essaouira, a port in the Atlantic Ocean, in a village surrounded by argan trees. As an adult, he fled the agricultural work in his village and moved closer to Essaouira. He became a second-hand dealer supplying the souk merchants with everything he could find. Later he would take care of an olive press operated by a camel. Growing old, he began to draw, without conviction, by chance. One day when he was in the souk he showed his drawings to a friend: “It was my nephew who made that,” he said. Over time he got caught up in the game and no longer hesitates to claim his work as his own: “I made these. Do you want more? ” He first drew with a ballpoint pen on the back of used sheets or on the blank backs of maintenance instructions. Later on, he abandoned waste paper and chose thicker packing boxes. With a black felt-tip pen he outlines the silhouettes of his figures. His world is populated by donkeys, oases, ducks, wells, souks, carpets, palm trees, walls, goats up in the trees and old people waving their canes towards the sky. In 2014 Mohamed Babahoum was hospitalized for pneumonia; following this event he stopped talking for a long time. He now lives with his son. Despite his age, fatigue and illness he has not stopped painting and drawing.
BABAHOUM mohamed
