Relighting the stars

A French artist of Moroccan origin, Sara Ouhaddou is developing a practice based on collaboration, dialogue and transmission. At the crossroads of art and craft, her multidisciplinary work revisits traditional skills, gestures, forms, materials and colours, using creative protocols based on listening, exchange and reciprocity. For over ten years, she has worked with craftspeople in Morocco, France, Italy, Japan, the United States, Tunisia and, more recently, Uzbekistan. Each project is born of an encounter, a territory, a memory, an object or a story, and is developed through an evolving process that the artist sees as a collective act.

Conceived as a poetic journey through the towers and ramparts of Aigues-Mortes, Sara Ouhaddou's exhibition explores the notions of transmission, memory and disappearance. Through works in glass, garlands, stained-glass windows and amulet animals, the artist uses the image of stars as a metaphor for gestures passed down from generation to generation: their birth, their brilliance, their fading and the traces they leave behind.

Where stars are born, is there a trace left behind?

Crossing the Tour de Constance, a large glass garland almost thirty metres long evokes the birth of the stars and the invisible gestures of everyday life, often carried out by women.

Les mains fertiles - #2Inthe former bread oven in the Tour de Constance, a family of glass animals has been created by women to protect children.

The window display of derb Dabachi

This work reflects on the way in which products are presented for sale: the artist examines the ways in which crafts are presented in the face of the rise of tourism.

Where the stars disappear, is there any trace left?

This installation brings together garlands, toy animals and scenographic elements in a reflection on disappearance and memory. Like a shooting star whose light remains after it has passed, the objects on display evoke the gestures of care and attention that remain, even when material forms fade away.

Where the stars appear, what does their light reveal?

In the rooms of Porte des Moulins, a hanging garland and two stained glass windows activated by daylight explore what is transmitted beyond the gesture itself: the presence, the story, the beliefs and the invisible knowledge that accompany it. The artist also evokes the world of storytelling and oral transmission.

Where the stars remain, what is left of their light?

With a new garland and a glass teddy bear, Sara Ouhaddou looks at the stars that continue to exist but become invisible. Through this metaphor, she evokes the gestures, objects and stories - often linked to women - that have long structured our daily lives but are now tending to disappear from our horizons.

The Thousand and One Nights, a stained glass window inspired by the figure of Scheherazade, extends this reflection on storytelling as a gesture of resistance and transmission. Like the stars or forgotten traditions, stories persist, are transformed and continue to leave a trace through time.

A thousand and one nights

The artist questions the place of storytelling as a form of transmission that is both fragile and essential, like the stars we no longer see or the gestures we forget. Like them, stories persist: they circulate, transforming themselves, even when they become invisible.

Discover the full exhibition tour in multiple languages here.

The Mediterranean Season 2026 highlights the richness and diversity of Mediterranean cultures. It celebrates the artists, creators and young talents of these regions, promoting cultural and human exchanges.

It is spreading its influence on the shores of the Mediterranean through the organisation of a number of events in conjunction with the region's artistic scenes, cultural structures and the French diplomatic network abroad.

This Season is an opportunity to promote initiatives by young people and diasporas, to support creation and innovation through the circulation of ideas and people, and to encourage cooperation between civil societies, in particular with Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and Lebanon.

Supported by the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture in conjunction with the Interministerial Delegation for the Mediterranean, the Saison Méditerranée 2026 is being implemented by the Institut français under the general curatorship of Julie Kretzschmar.