Alya Sebti, born in Casablanca (Morocco) in 1983, is a Berlin-based independent curator. In 2014, she was the artistic director for the 5th edition of the Marrakech Biennial. From April 2016, Alya directs the ifa Gallery Berlin (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, Berlin). She has curated several exhibitions in Europe and North Africa since she began working as a curator and author in 2010. She is board member of the International Biennial Association (IBA), and she works as curatorial advisor for the Wentrup Gallery, Berlin. Alya Sebti has written and lectured extensively on art and the public sphere, about Biennials and transcultural art practices at venues including: Thessaloniki Biennale (GR); University of Addis Abeba; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa), Stuttgart/Berlin; New York University, Berlin; Le Cube, Rabat.

Exhibitions
2016 and 2017, "In the Carpet" together with Salma Lahlou and Mouna Mekouar, in cooperation with Akademie Schloss Solitude, at ifa Gallery Stuttgart (October 2016) and at ifa Gallery Berlin (January 2017).
2015, Hicham Berrada. Caverne, Wentrup Gallery, Berlin. Carrefour / Treffpunkt, Ifa Gallery (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), Berlin. Casablanca, black energy, part of the European Capital of Culture in Mons (BE).
2014, Mounira Al Solh. Now eat my script, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin. Hicham Berrada, Felix Kiessling. Equilibres / Ausgleich, Wentrup Gallery, Berlin.
2013, Of Other Spaces, Casablanca (MA); Al Hoceima (MA); Utrecht (NL); Amsterdam (NL).
2011, Youssef Nabil. You never left, Galerie HD, Casablanca (MA). 2010, Reza Aramesh / Shadi Ghadirian, CMOOA Gallery, Rabat (Morocco). From 2012 to 2014, she initiated a cycle of online exhibitions with Arte East on contemporary art in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.
 
Publications
Alya Sebti, Angelika Stepken (eds.), Pas de Deux, exh. cat. Villa Romana, Florenz, argobooks, Berlin 2014. 'The Politics of Soft Transgression:? An Interview with Zoulikha Bouabdellah' catalogue of the exhibition 'Body Talk, Feminism, Sexuality and the Body in the Work of Six African Women Artists', pp 131-142.
Carrefour / Treffpunkt. Die Marrakech Biennale und darüber hinaus, exh. cat. Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart 2015.
'Biennale, from grounding to meeting space' (POSITION Social changes through Art in the Arab World, Akademie der Kunst, Germany 2014).
'The building up of a network of residencies in Maghreb and beyond', in: TAKE on art, issue 11, 2013, pp.29 to 36.
'Beat generation made in Morocco', in: L’art même, issue 57, 2012, pp7 to 10.

https://www.celesteprize.com/sebti.alya