Samir Salmi is an artist, writer, and researcher from Morocco who specializes in poetry and modern art. He has exhibited his work both at home and abroad. His PhD thesis “Discourse and Semantics in the Poetry and Art of Gibran Khalil Gibran” was supervised by Mohammed Bennis. Among his publications are the short story collection Al-Awda ila Hudniha al-Dafi (Returning to her Warm Embrace) and Shi‘riyat Jubran al-Mustamirr bayn al-Shi‘ri wal-Fanni (The Poetics of Gibran: Continuity between Poetry and Art, Les Edition Toubkal, Morocco) as well as creative and critical pieces in Arab and international newspapers and magazines. In 2019 he has produced a number of installations and large-scale artistic performances, most recently the temporary installation in the Moroccan south (in 2019): The Sea in Painting: 15 Days Facing the Ocean. In 2006 he won the prize of the World Art and Environment Symposium in Osaka, Japan for his eco-installation Hydro Dimensions, and was awarded the King Hassan II Award for Environment in 2001. He received the Diploma of the Grand Finale in Abstract Art at the 31st International Prize for the Art of Dyeing, Cannes, France. In 1997 he received the Association Ribat al-Fath prize for the environment for his work Memory of the Sea on the recovery of natural marine waste. In 1995, the Arts festival in Paris awarded him a diploma of merit for his sculptural-colour work, Opaque and Transparent. In Cairo, he won the Suad al-Sabah competition for Arab Youth Creativity for his short story collection Al-Awda ila Hudniha al-Dafi (published by Dar Suad al-Sabah, Kuwait and GEBO, Egypt). Winner of the short story prize, Moroccan Writers’ Union, Kenitra branch, 1998. Member of the World Organization for Art in the USA from 2009. Member of UNESCO’s International Association for Plastic Arts in Paris since 1998. Member of the Centre for Artists and Art Lovers in France since 1993. Member of the Trans-European Cultural Network for Researchers and Artists from the Mediterranean Basin in Paris since 1999. Member of the UNESCO-affiliated Moroccan Association of Plastic Artists, and its secretary-general from 1999 to 2003. Founding member of the Association for Research Students in Literature and Languages at Rabat University (the mother association for similar student associations in the Arab world). Founding member of the Tashkil wa-Jumhour movement, 1989.
