Mohamed Sleiman Labat

Mohamed Sleiman Labat is a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and writer, born, raised, and based in the Sahrawi refugee camps in southwest Algeria. He is the founder and director of the community art space Motif Art Studio, a creative hub for art and education in Samara Camp. Motif Art Studio was constructed entirely from discarded materials after destructive flooding that occurred in the camps in 2015. Labat has received numerous awards, including the 2024 S+T+ARTS Prize Africa (EU Award of Distinction) and the 2024 Prince Claus Fund Mentorship Award for Cultural and Artistic Responses to the Environmental Crisis. His work has been exhibited in Algeria, Austria, Italy, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. His co-created work with Pekka Niskanen, PHOSfate, was showcased at the Helsinki Biennial in 2023.

Labat’s art draws upon the past and present life of the Sahrawi people, exploring the multifaceted and entangled political, environmental, and social issues that affect his local community in the hamada desert and the world at large through film, writing, and community-based art. His art practice also addresses issues of food dependence resulting from forced displacement and living in a harsh, hot desert environment. Labat’s experimental garden growing vegetables and plants provides some food independence through fresh food alternatives, as well as an escape from the heat. His recent project, PHOSfate, focuses on the damage caused by phosphate, both as a substance and an industry, and its political implications, linking the Baltic and Western Sahara. The emerging gardening practices and the knowledge developing with them in the specific context of the Sahrawi are strong expressions that he uses to process and address issues of climate change, environmental justice, and community resilience.

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