samir mazer
Samir Mazer, born in 1966 in Tétouan, Morocco, is a Franco-Moroccan sculptor and designer based between Toulouse and Fez. For three decades, he dedicates his artistic practice to traditional Moroccan zellige, making this material his primary means of expression.
Driven by a desire to extend the history of this millennial art, he approaches it with a deeply sensitive perspective and across different scales. He reveals the material beyond a single ornamental motif, infusing it with an unprecedented sensoriality.
By transcending its original function, he frees zellige from its historical constraints to reveal a vibratory material that transforms under the artist’s gaze.
a dialogue between worlds
His research explores the relationship between surface and movement, geometry and emotion, redefining zellige—traditionally a fixed architectural ornament—as a living, breathing art form animated by light.
As the initiator of a dialogue between sacred and contemporary art, Samir Mazer invites us to rethink our relationship with the world through a simple square of clay, rich in nuances, vibrations, diversity, and imperfection, ultimately expressing our shared humanity.
zellige,
a material, a lifetime
In Morocco, zellige is a highly codified sacred art deeply linked to Islamic architecture and the artisan’s know-how. Like a palimpsest, Samir Mazer’s work deconstructs the traditional motif to liberate the material from its aesthetic codes and from being merely a support for history. Thus, his artistic approach is written with a distant gaze on the heritage of Moroccan zellige which is a true emblem of a still-living patrimony in Morocco.
Samir Mazer has nevertheless managed to preserve its matrix and spiritual force. The manufacturing technique as much as the ancestral gesture are perpetuated to write a new language.
For his commissioners, luxury houses, hospitality projects or private collectors, Samir Mazer develops in-situ work to put zellige in echo and in connection with a place. While the space is still muted, he creates art work or monumental compositions allowing it to reveal itself and dialogue with its inhabitants – a face-to-face between two shy but very much alive entities.
