1-54 Marrakech 2019: Public Programme and Special Projects

BRICE MARDEN AT MUSÉE YVES SAINT LAURENT MARRAKECH

The Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech will present the first exhibition of renowned American artist Brice Marden in Marrakech, a city he discovered many years ago and one in which he continues to regularly visit and work in. Experimenting with self-imposed rules, limits, and processes, and drawing inspiration from extensive travels, Marden combines the diagrammatic formulas of Minimalism, the immediacy of Abstract Expressionism, and the intuitive gesture of calligraphy in his exploration of gesture, line and colour. This exhibition brings together more than 60 works, including several never-before-seen pieces produced in Morocco.

AMINE EL GOTAIBI AT DAR MOULAY ALI

Commissioned by L’Institut Français de Marrakech, Perspective de séduction will be a new site-specific installation by Beirut-based artist Amine El Gotaibi, which will take place across the patio of Dar Moulay Ali. Building on the artist’s series of drawings, Perspective de brebis, this new installation addresses the hierarchical relationship between man and animals, and man and power. In this work, El Gotaibi explores the dynamic of domination/persuasion and training/domestication as a game of seduction: pursued without violence but with the aim to restrict someone existence.

EMEKA OGBOH: LOS-RAK

DADA, a newly opened exhibition space dedicated to contemporary art, will present an installation by Nigerian artist Emeka Ogboh, LOS – RAK. Combining sound compositions created from recordings captured in the Medina of Marrakech, along with his Lagos Soundscapes project – an online, live sound streaming from Lagos – the installation develops the artist’s investigation into the history and aural infrastructures of cities. The exhibition presents sounds and visuals from the urban environment, demonstrating Ogboh’s interest in cities as critical places of neoliberal modernity and how sound can capture existential relations, frame our comprehension of the world, and provide a context in which to pose critical questions about immigration, globalisation and post-colonialism.

MATERIAL INSANITY AT MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN ART AL MAADEN (MACAAL)

Material Insanity at Museum of Contemporary African Art Al Maaden (MACAAL)will showcase some of the most exciting artists currently working on the continent and its diaspora. This group exhibition questions the usefulness of material things and their inherent symbolic value, highlighting the transformative power of art within consumer societies. From tactile objects, tapestries and installations composed of industrial materials, the works in the exhibition strike a balance between form and meaning, emphasizing the importance of the medium itself. Exhibited artists include Fatiha Zemmouri (Morocco), Clay Apenouvon (Togo/ France), Ibrahim Mahama (Ghana) and Bronwyn Katz (South Africa). Works by Nari Ward (US/ Jamaica), Beya Gille Gacha (Cameroon), Frances Goodman (South Africa) and Amina Agueznay (Morocco). Their works examine the multiplicity of contemporary identities with reference to issues such as migration, societal expectations and traditions which, when brought together, expose the traces of each individual journey and history.

SAÂD BEN CHEFFAJ IN THE SALON DE THÉ, LA MAMOUNIA

L’Atelier 21 will present a selection of works by Moroccan artist Saâd Ben Cheffaj, one of the founders of modern painting in Morocco, in the Salon de Thé at La Mamounia. Born in 1939 in Tétouan, Cheffaj is one of the first Moroccan artists to have received academic training. Following his studies in 1957 at the l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Séville, he went on to pursue History of Art at the Ecole du Louvre in Paris. He was later awarded a Professor diploma, in 1962, from the Ecole of Beaux-Arts Santa Isabel de Hungaria de Séville, before returning to Morocco to teach History of Art, drawing and painting at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Tétouan. Cheffaj’s painting continues to encompass multiple movements (figuration, expressionism, neorealism and abstraction), while retaining the creative energy that characterises his works.

IN-DISCIPLINE #2 AT MONTRESSO* ART FOUNDATION

Montresso* Art Foundation, an artist residency and art space based in Marrakech, will present its second edition of IN-DISCIPLINE, an itinerant support programme dedicated to creation and diffusion. IN-DISCIPLINE #2 will showcase the work of five artists from Côte d’Ivoire: Gopal Dagnogo, Joachim Silue, Pascal Konan, Armand Boua and Yeanzi, who will each respond to the notion of ‘Indiscipline’: to leave the discipline, to enter the discipline, to surpass one’s discipline, to confront the other mediums and to create a new aesthetic.

COMPTOIR DES MINES GALERIE: AFRICAN POETRIES AND HYBRIDIZATIONS

Comptoir des Mines Galerie will present two exhibitions, African Poetries and Hybridizations, across two locations in the city. African Poetries will bring together a selection of artists within the exhibition spaces of Comptoir des Mines Galerie’s contemporary art centre. Hybridizations will take place in Marrakech’s historical main square and market place, Jemaa el-Fna, wherein participating artists will be invited to create a dialogue and new common history through creating works that relate to local traditions. Hybridizations also pays tribute to the Jemaa el-Fna Manifesto, a major artistic event that took place in the 1970s.