Mattijs van den Bosch

Mattijs van den Bosch was born in Rabat in 1964 and moved to the Netherlands at the age of nine. For many years, his memories of Morocco were shaped by the home movies his father had made there, keeping his image of the country both vivid and idealized.

After twenty-five years, he returned in 2017 for a series of working visits. He learned Moroccan Arabic in order to genuinely connect with the people he drew and painted. Since then, he has documented everyday street life, exploring the tension between tradition and contemporary life.

A defining feature of his work is the relentless light, a direct echo of his earliest impressions of the Moroccan sun. Following an accident in the 1990s, he switched from oil paint to acrylics, after which his subjects became more personal and direct.

A woman pushes a stroller; beyond that, nothing much seems to happen, and yet you keep looking.

Van den Bosch left Morocco as a child and did not return until adulthood. He relearned the language so that he could truly connect with the people he painted.

Many colleagues and patients in this institution carry a second home like that within them.

Attention begins with the desire to understand someone.