Hiba Baddou’s Paraboles: A Retro-Futuristic Journey Through Identity and Roots

At the Saatchi Gallery in London, Moroccan filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist Hiba Baddou’s project Paraboles recently captivated audiences as part of the Art for Change Prize exhibition. Winner of the 2024 prize, the multi-disciplinary project explores the paradox of identity in a postcolonial world, blending retro-futuristic aesthetics with deeply personal and cultural symbolism through a short film, a photo series, calligraphy and a book. Through her lens, the satellite dish becomes a powerful metaphor for globalisation, displacement, and the alienation of communities from their roots.

Photography by Léo Geoffrion

Baddou’s inspiration for Paraboles stems from her upbringing in Morocco. “I grew up next to a big neighbourhood, with thousands of satellite dishes on top of the roofs,” she recalls. “To me, it was fascinating that the only window to the world these people had was TV, not what was actually going on in the streets underneath them.” This disconnection left a lasting impression on her.

The artist reflects on how visual media shaped aspirations and identity in her community.  “I remember this guy telling me, ‘I would rather have a TV than water because water won’t make me dream.’”

For Baddou, this tension between longing for the West and losing touch with one’s own culture is deeply personal. “I grew up in Morocco and went to the French high school,” she shares. “We were taught so much about Europe and Western countries but not much about our own. When I arrived in Paris, I realised I was far from my roots, even though I felt very Moroccan. That paradox stayed with me.”

Central to Paraboles is the idea of the sacralisation of images—how media has assumed an almost religious role in shaping modern life. “The satellite dish represents a modern dogma. One that dictates how we perceive and dream about the world, often at the cost of our cultural roots.” This sacralisation of images drives much of Paraboles, as Baddou explores the ways in which we consume visual media while questioning its deeper impact on identity and belonging.

Baddou highlights this phenomenon through layered symbolism. “I created a sacred book of 300 pages, representing the 300 hertz, which is the frequency needed to combine sound and image on TV,” she explains. Every detail, from the type of paper used to the way pages mimic the static noise of old televisions, underscores the reverence society places on media.

At the heart of the project is the conceptual “Hertz Republic,” a symbolic representation of postcolonial societies connected by shared struggles. Baddou even created an invented language inspired by Hertzian waves transmitted by satellites. “I took the 72 megahertz sent from satellites to North Africa and turned them into 72 letters,” she explains.

The aesthetic of Paraboles, the film, merges nomadic traditions with retro-futurism, creating a striking visual language. “I think there’s such a big contrast between the desert as a place, but also as a concept, and technology,” Baddou explains. In the film, characters don costumes adorned with oversized satellite dishes on their heads, embodying the weight of media’s influence while journeying through vast, desolate landscapes.

At its core, the project is a meditation on returning to one’s roots. “I want people to realise how rich their culture is and how rich their heritage is,” Baddou emphasises. “Roots are always going to take over. I really believe so.”

Although Paraboles draws from Baddou’s personal experiences in Morocco, its themes are universal. During her time in Senegal for the Dakar Biennale, she discovered how resonant the project was with other postcolonial societies. “Senegal and Morocco are separated by the Sahara Desert, but we have so much in common,” she says. “It’s about decolonising our lands, taking our roots back, and having our culture back.”

Baddou’s ultimate goal with Paraboles is to foster empathy and understanding. “What I want from people is to get the empathy or understanding of why people leave their places,” she says. “Once you see a soul and not just a body, you’re way kinder and welcoming.”

As Paraboles continues to travel internationally with its upcoming exhibition at the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL), Baddou is already planning her next projects, focusing on forgotten rituals in Morocco and beyond. “It’s still about building bridges between cultures,” she says.

With Paraboles, Hiba Baddou has created a body of work that is as visually capturing as it is conceptually profound. It’s a testament to her ability to use art as a medium to question, resist, and ultimately celebrate identity in all its complexity.