The Moroccan Madonna by Ghita Benlamih

Recently Madonna posed wearing a headdress from Morocco during her birthday celebrations.

The headdress was the same one that she wore during the MTV Vma awards ceremony where she gave a tribute to soul icon Aretha Franklin.

Some people called the act of wearing the piece inappropriate or cultural appropriation, yet if we look a little further into Madonna’s association with this piece of adornment we will find a piece of art by a young rising star of the Moroccan art scene.

The piece of art called Warrior was created by Ghita Benlamih in 2014. It is a digitally created collage which shows Madonna wearing the headdress which has hit the headlines following the stars lavish birthday celebration in a riad in Marrakech .

Ghita is a 24 year old artist from Rabat in Morocco.

Benlamlih created her art project GB Art and Photography to showcase her work which features Iconic public figures in digitally created collages .

The melange of the iconic people and the cultural material of her native Maghreb has proved popular.

Benlamlih states that she is proud of her cultural heritage and wants to include it in her work in the form of images, calligraphy and cultural references.

There are many other iconic figures featured in Benlamlih’s art including Beyonce, Marilyn Monroe and Nelson Mandela.