Moroccan Artist Embellishes The Streets Of Sal With His Paintings

Mourad Rachendali is a young artist from Salé in Morocco. Since he was a small boy, he has dreamed of turning his native city into a real-life art gallery. He is more or less the Moroccan Banksy, as he paints through the streets of his city in a bid to raise awareness of a number of issues in Moroccan society.

This mission is a personal choice for Mourad, who buys his own tools in order to be able to share his thoughts through art in the streets of Salé. His messages are vibrant in colour, usually featuring orange, yellow, red and green, and have a social message. In one painting in particular, he portrays two men robbing another man and kicking him to the floor. This is a common type of crime in Morocco and is very much present in the bigger cities such as Casablanca or Marrakech.

Mourad hopes to inspire the upcoming generation, especially youngsters, who might feel that art is the only way for them to express their feelings. Thankfully, Mourad is here to give them a path they can follow in order to make a career in art by exploring their creativity.

Mourad explains, “It is my actual job to paint on the walls of elementary schools, orphanages and other public buildings for children. So, one day I was walking by a shattered dirty wall in the street, and thought that I would paint on it to make it look better. And that’s how it started.”

He continues, “My main goal is to raise awareness and send a message through this art that is in the streets for everyone to see. I would say the one that got most attention was the ‘no robbery’ one, people related to it.”