Artworks dubbed ‘Orientalist’ are trying
too hard to fit the ‘exotic Moroccan’
mould – not exactly a compliment, as
Edward Said explains in Orientalism ,
his breakthrough critique of Western
distortions of Middle Eastern culture.Moroccan
Art Stars
» » Mahi Binebine
Ethereal figures in
beeswax, colliding,
pulling apart, not
seeing one another
» » Hassan Echair
Objects hanging in
tenuous balance: white
fence-posts, charcoal,
twigs wrapped in string
» » Larbi Cherkaoui
Gestural and
seemingly urgent
calligraphic flourishes
on goatskin
Art & Crafts
The usual arts and crafts hierarchy is reversed in Morocco, where the craft tradition ( Click
here ) is ancient and revered, while visual art is a more recent development. Ornament is meant
to be spiritually uplifting, while nonfunctional objects and representational images have
traditionally been viewed as pointless – or worse, vanity verging on idolatry, as it is perceived in
Orthodox Judaism and some (though not all) Muslim societies.
VISUAL ART
Perhaps because it has been relegated to a marginal position, Moroccan contemporary art has
particular poignancy and a sense of urgency, expressing aspirations and frustrations that can
be understood instinctively – while eluding media censorship.
The new artworks emerging from Morocco today are not
kitschy paintings of eyelash-batting veiled women and scowling
turbaned warriors, though you’ll still find plenty of those in
tourist showrooms. These form a 19th-century French
Orientalist tradition made largely for export, and contemporary
Moroccan artists like Hassan Hajjaj are cleverly tweaking it.
Hajjaj’s provocative full-colour photographs of veiled women are
not what you’d expect: one tough lady flashing the peace sign
wears a rapper-style Nike-logo veil, emblazoned with the slogan ‘Just Do It’ across her mouth.
Morocco’s visual-art scene put down local roots in the 1950s and ’60s, when folk artists in
Essaouira and Tangier made painting and sculpture their own by incorporating Berber symbols
and locally scavenged materials. Landscape painting became a popular way to express pride of
place in Essaouira and Assilah, and abstract painting became an important means of poetic
expression in Rabat and Casablanca.
Marrakesh’s art scene combines elemental forms with organic,
traditional materials (mud, henna, wax, goatskin), helping to ground
abstract art in Morocco as an indigenous art form. The Marrakesh scene
has taken off in the past decade, launching Morocco’s first Biennale in
2005, the first School of Visual Arts MFA program in 2007, and Morocco’s
first International Art Fair in 2009. Morocco’s 2010 representative to the
Venice Biennale was Marrakshi Mahi BineBine, whose ghostly characters
in wax and raw pigment constantly make and miss connections –
tragicomic gestures recalling William Kentridge’s animations about
apartheid-era South Africa.Calligraphy
Calligraphy remains Morocco’s most esteemed visual art form, practised
and perfected in Moroccan medersas (Quranic schools) over the last 1000
years. In Morocco, calligraphy isn’t just in the Quran: it’s on tiled walls,Top of section