Issue 11 | ...Celebrating the world’s richest continent | http://www.nomadafricamag.com | 23Gallivant | Marrakechgoing beyond what is happening here.
We are in the background, and help "our"
artists with projects unrelated to Jardin
Rouge. All artists who stay here leave a
piece of art for us before they leave,"
says Estelle Guilie.
As the creator is is French, there is a
larger focus on French artists and French
cultural life. A few Germans, Americans
and Russians, however, have been in-
vited. Recently, Jardin Rouge has also
turned its attention on Africa.
"Right now our focus is on inviting
African artists from both Morocco and
other African countries. We already have
a few we have talked to", says Elise Lav-
igne, showing us around Jardin Rouge.
One artist with roots in Africa now stay-
ing at Jardin Rouge is Kouka Ntadi from
the Congo. He is here with his Bantus,
African pictures painted on walls or on
rough planks.
Lately, Kouka has become known all
around the world. "My images would not
work on normal canvas. They would be
too flat and uninteresting", says Kouka.
In the beginning, he used postcards from
Africa, which he interpreted and painted
on planks in his home country Congo.
"There is no graffiti, no spray bottles, not
even any walls to paint on in Congo. I
wanted to do something in the streets
that people would recognise. After all,
when you look at it, in Europe it is almost
only other graffiti artists who understand
graffiti", says Kouka Ntadi.
During his travels, he painted the entire
world's descendants, everybody had a
relation with the figures he painted on
the street. "It was in Latin America I re-
ceived the first strong reactions. People
recognised the costumes and badges
and told me how I painted their descen-
dants.
“Remarkably, the Congo is the only
country where I had problems with my
paintings. For the Congolese the pictures
are violent and remind them of their
roots and the colonisation", he says.
In 2017, Jardin Rouge, or actually Mon-
tresso foundation, reached beyond the
beautiful garden by arranging a big exhi-
bition in Rabat with Kouka Ntadi and
French-Tunisian photographer WahibChehata. Three street art artists, Hendrik
Beikirch, Tarek Benaoum and AbeilOne
painted murals on different walls in
Rabat.
In the room next to Kouka Ntadi French
street art artist RESO aka Cedric Lascours
is working. Right now, he is reusing old
jute bags, on which he spray paints. He
also paints on compressed garbage
found in Marrakech.
"Working with so much time as I do here
is unusual. The difference is I use more
time for preparation, finding the right
bag and putting it up. For spray painting,
I work as I did on the streets. Painting
with spray is totally different from oil
painting. You don ́t need to wait for it to
dry for months, it ́s dry in a few minutes.
It is the world's most beautiful vandal-
ism", he laughs.
His neighbour, French graffiti artist POES
paints the eight deadly sins. "I was paint-
ing the seven deadly sins, but found out
they actually are eight. I started with the
forgotten one, which translates as Unus-
able Glory. It ́s all is about the total ego of
our era, our ever-growing narcissism.