Éléphant, 2023

Omar Aoufia  

Omar Aoufia is a Moroccan sculptor born in 1988 who, in addition to his talent, is a warm and enthusiastic man; a young artistic ironworker, he was trained by a master sculptor Hassan LAAMIRAT

He designs each model himself and oversees all the details, spending his days with a blowtorch in his hand.

He mainly uses recycled metal parts that some people collect for him every week in the scrap metal district of Marrakech. These are mainly mechanical parts from bicycles, motorcycles, cars, and old tools. He uses sprockets, chains, keys, tools, locks, bearings, springs, bolts and nuts, ventilation grilles, spark plugs, and even shock absorbers, tank parts, or gas bottles.

Only he can capture the essence, movement and spirit of each of the animals he creates, and each work is unique; the use of small pieces of metal requires considerable work but allows him to work on the details to express with great sensitivity elements such as the carriage of a horse's head for example.

These works are truly upcycling, the assembly of scrap metal and mechanical parts giving new life to this waste by sublimating the sculpture of an animal; Omar is therefore what we can call an “eco-creator”.

Omar shows us how human imagination and creativity allow us to create true works of art from recycled waste.

All of his early works were life-size representations of animals. But following numerous requests, he agreed to create, for example, small horses. His busts of women and men were incredibly successful because they were so affordable.

His universe has expanded to include depictions of prehistoric animals, aliens, and robots from science fiction films and comic books.