Hassan Hajjaj + Acid Arab. My Rock Stars

Billie Eilish, Madonna, Rachid Taha, Lee Scratch Perry, Alicia Keys & Swizz Beatz, m’alem gnawa Babohot… The Musée de la musique hosts the musical pantheon of photographer, stylist, and visual artist Hassan Hajjaj in an installation that celebrates the diversity of his cultural influences and creative freedom. In echo, the group Acid Arab plunges the visitor into a musical alchemy, with an electro creation, blending traditional sounds from the Arab world, electronic basses, and global pulsations.

From Larache to London After a childhood in the Moroccan city of Larache, Hassan Hajjaj grew up in London in the 1980s, amidst a vibrant, multicultural, protest-driven scene, set to the rhythm of reggae, dub, and hip-hop.

From this culture of collage and remix, he developed an uninhibited approach to fashion, design, and photography, which he taught himself.

In the manner of Malian photographers Malick Sidibé and Seydou Keïta, he poses his friends, whom he has sometimes dressed, in front of colourful backdrops.

Unveiling the artist's personal archives and creative process, the My Rock Stars exhibition tells the diasporic journey of Hassan Hajjaj, with music as a vector of communication and emotion.

Gnawa Connection From the 1990s onwards, Hassan Hajjaj began working with the Gnawa community, immortalising its oldest masters.

Born from the encounter of African, Arab, and Amazigh heritages, Gnawa culture is an ancestral spiritual and musical tradition, now rehabilitated as a symbol of diversity and cultural resistance in Morocco.

The powerful energy of the Gnawa master musicians continues to infuse his work. Through photography, he transforms them into figures of a counter-culture, defying any folklorisation.

The Making of Images: Andy Wahlou Nicknamed “Andy Wahlou” by his friend Rachid Taha, in homage to Andy Warhol, playing with the Tamazight word walou (nothing at all), Hassan Hajjaj blurs clichés in a clash between African recycling culture and pop culture's appropriation of consumer society objects.

The construction of the frame of his photographs is a play with traditional architectural elements, notably the moucharabieh. Hassan Hajjaj has developed a real protocol in preparing his “Rock Stars”: glasses, socks, hats, accessories, but also custom-made clothes.

The photo shoots, often