HASSAN HAJJAJ
/Noss Noss (2017)
Hassan Hajjaj wears many hats. Living between London and Marrakech, he is an artist, photographer, designer, performer and filmmaker. His installation for the NGV Triennial has morphed and changed since the 2000s, when it was known as Le Salon. At the Triennial, it’s called Noss Noss — named after a popular Moroccan drink made of half-coffee, half-milk — and it features works such as the vibrant Donovan Stylin’. “I’m taking over the whole cafe,” says Hajjaj. Incorporating such kitsch elements as camel road signs for wallpaper, imagery of fez-bedecked Moroccan men and street elements like crate seating, it plays on the design of a Moroccan-style salon, says the artist. Hajjaj has curated a playlist of music, old and new, to accompany the piece, and the chef of the NGV’s Gallery Kitchen has even come up with a Moroccan menu. “It’s really about the senses,” says Hajjaj. “You come to see it, feel it, smell it, taste it and hear it.” Emphasising the Arab tradition of generosity, Noss Noss is a work that is both refreshing and crucial in a climate where so much wrongly directed fear is associated with the Muslim world. But Hajjaj insists that this work is not political. “I am presenting my culture — something positive that doesn’t go to that side of politics or religion,” he says. “It’s about people getting together, sharing the moment, discovering something new and making people feel comfortable.”