Art_Africa_2016_03_

ARTAFRICA

Your position as both a collector and curator enables you to empathise with

the individual concerns of the artist as well as incorporate concerns toward

markets and investment. What approach has the fair taken in order to bridge

this gap? Is this still a concern, given the fact that it is a non-profit event?

The Marrakech Biennale is a non-profit event, but we would like to demonstrate that

we can also have an independent, healthy ecosystem of art and a market that can

prosper here in Morocco through the biennale and its infrastructure. In Morocco,

we have our own collectors, institutions and galleries, however, the biennale also

provides an opportunity and platform to extend this, to build on it further and to

involve international collectors, museums, institutions, galleries and patrons who will

be triggered to explore the art scene from this destination. The biennale will present

a plethora of new productions and commissions based in relation to the curatorial

theme and will show that Marrakech can be a great and affordable destination for the

production and exchange of art. We are hosting numerous residencies for artists and

inviting them all to be present in the biennale; to interact with each other, curators,

collectors and patrons. I sincerely believe that biennales are a point for discussions

and the exchange of ideas. It brings art to the professionals but most importantly

to the public. All of this helps bridge the gap and facilitate the work of artists in a

healthy, expanding market.

You’ve been quoted as saying that the key to the biennale’s future success lies

partly in the city’s location “between the Western world, the Islamic world

and the African world.” Please elaborate on this?

As one of the most prominent cities in Morocco, Marrakech is on the crossroads

between Africa, the Arab world and Europe. We are diverse and multicultural; we

are Amazigh, we are Jewish, we are Arabs, we are Muslims, we are black. We have

lived for almost eight hundred years in Spain and Portugal, Rome has many historical

sites in our country. We have to be proud of this diversity and constantly learn and

disseminate this language of tolerance in an intolerant world. The biennale becomes

a platform and a place to do just that.

MARRAKECH BIENNALE / IN CONVERSATION WITH MOHAMED AMINE KABBAJ 5/9

FEATURE / MARRAKECH BIENNALE

LEFT TO RIGHT: Melvin Edwards, Libya, 2012. Welded steel, 34.9 x 19 x 20.3 cm; Melvin Edwards, For Egypt,

1980. Welded steel, 24.8 x 23.2 13.3 cm; Melvin Edwards, Road to Goma, 1993-1994. Welded steel. 30.5 x 39.4
      x 20.3 cm. All images courtesy of Alexander Gray Associates, New York. © 2015 Melvin Edwards / Artist’s Rights
      Society (ARS), New York.