Abdessamad el Montassir

Born in 1989 in Boujdour, Morocco.
Lives and works in Lons-le-Saunier, France.

A graduate of the National Institute of Fine Arts in Tetouan and the École Normale Supérieure in Meknes, Abdessamad El Montassir is a visual artist whose practice is deeply rooted in the vast landscapes of the Sahara. Collaborating with scientists, citizen witnesses, and activists, he develops an artistic practice at the crossroads of research and creation. His work is the result of a meticulous process of collecting intangible testimonies and collective narratives. The artist explores the elusive link between history and memory, reviving words that are often erased by official narratives.

A Stone Under the Tongue (Une pierre sous la langue), her solo exhibition co-produced by Frac Franche-Comté and the Académie de France in Rome – Villa Médicis as part of the Fondation Louis Roederer Production Grant, will be on display from October 17, 2025, to March 1, 2026. The exhibition refers to a Sahrawi poem that recommends placing a stone under the tongue to forget, and throwing it towards the sun to remember…
It brings together works created between 2021 and 2024, including two pieces from the Frac collection, as well as new works created especially for the occasion, notably during the artist’s stay at the Villa Medici.
An exhibition about plants, landscapes, political history, drama and trauma, memory, and the lives of the inhabitants of the desert, past and present, but also about transmission, beauty, poetry. And silence too.