Visit the Berber Museum at Majorelle Garden

Visit the Berber Museum at Majorelle Garden

 

Located in the heart of Marrakech, the Majorelle Garden is an oasis in a busy city, and one of its most popular attractions. In addition to enjoying the beauty and tranquility of nature, visitors can learn some fascinating facts about the Berbers of Morocco when visiting the Majorelle Garden at the museum which displays the personal collection of Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé, who until recently were the patrons of the garden created by French artist Jaques Majorelle (1886-1962).

Pierre Bergé was long fascinated by the rich culture and art of the Berber people and identified with their need to have their culture, including their language, acknowledged and preserved. The new Moroccan Constitution which was adopted in July 2011, officially recognized and formalized the Amazigh language of the Berber people, reconfirming the thoughts of His Majesty King Mohammed VI in a speech in Mar 2011 where he state that the plurality of the Moroccan identity is united and enriched by its diversity, which includes the Amazigh, the common heritage of all Moroccans.

Imazighen, or Berbers, form the foundation of indigenous North African people, with their origin believed to stretch back more than 9,000 years. They are unified by their language and culture which they have maintained over the centuries, despite some tumultuous times. The culture has a sense of community, a strong bond to the earth and a deep relationship with the sacred. The recognition afforded it by the new Constitution of Morocco will help ensure the Berber culture is preserved into the future.

Jacques Majorelle beautifully captured the emotions, colors and spirit of the Berber culture in his artworks, many of which are displayed at the Berber Museum. Other items on display include traditional handcrafted items in leather, pottery, basketry and woodworking. Decorative geometric patterns are very evident in household and decorative items, as well as those used in rituals. Ornaments and jewelry on display include intricately crafted headdresses, brooches, necklaces and earrings. Materials and techniques used in creating jewelry are varied, with filigree, engraving, carving, enamel-work and molding producing unique items. Depending on the region and local availability, jewelry incorporates silver, coral, amber and amazonite.

A section of the museum is devoted to displaying traditional clothing worn at various festive occasions such as weddings and moussems. While certain aspects are uniform, and therefore readily identified with the Berber culture, there is room for great diversity, with jewelry and accessories reflecting personal tastes. Certainly, a visit to the Berber Museum at the Majorelle Garden will provide much insight into this fascinating and ancient culture.




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THE MARRAKECH BIENNALE

THE MARRAKECH BIENNALE

The city of Marrakech is normally associated with bartering for sparkly slippers and ceramics in the world famous souk; clamouring across the road, life and Moroccan rug in-hand, dodging death-wish scooters and supping mint tea whilst reclining, a la Talitha Getty, on a leather pouffe.

But these clichés, as I discovered on my trip hosted by Angsana Riad Collection, although true, aren’t, as they say, the half of it.

Marrakech is a city of stark contrasts and contradictions, as in-your-face as the insistent male street sellers, and as striking and ambitious as the fastidiously neat little girls on their way to school.

And the fourth Marrakech Biennale is the perfect embodiment of all these elements. Last Wednesday, at the Riad El Fenn, Vanessa Branson ( Richard’s sister) launched the event to a packed crowd of press and artists.  Running on ‘ Moroccan Time’ ( ie late )  she passionately explained why she started the festival, which has attracted the likes of Zadie Smith and Kim Cattrall.

“There was a terrible miscommunication about the Islamic world, and I wanted to do something about it,” she said. “ I had always had a wonderful experience, what they were saying wasn’t my experience. I wanted to create a platform for Morroccan artists and artisans, not just introducing Western art to Morocco.”

So Vanessa and her small team of curators put together a biennale, crossing over and blending many disciplines – visual art, literature, film and architecture. The biennale, consisting of talks, debates and film ran for five days whilst the main exhibition, Higher Atlas, with its main site at the city’s Theatre Royal is on until June.  It’s generated quite a buzz, with its young curators  Nadim Samman and Carson Chan bringing together a host of young contemporary artists, and much of the work specially commissioned and site specific. Rather like the city of Marrakech itself, it’s a mash-up of genres, of old and new, traditional and modern.

It was the first major trilingual ( Arabic, French and English ) contemporary arts festival in North Africa, and the interest it generated is testament to our increasing appetite for a new aesthetic, and our interest in discovering the truth behind different cultures.

Branson, Samman and Chan were at pains to explain how accessible the exhibition is to local Moroccans,  how they’ve engaged with local artisans and students and, crucially, how the biennale integrates with the physical, the bricks and mortar, of the city itself. That said, it seemed that the only Moroccans at the biennale were the rich, liberal elite.

To be fair, advertising inside the Medina is prohibited,  and cultural funding and structures aren’t in place ( there aren’t any art schools in Marrakech -  those with an artistic bent are steered towards graphic design because, with 48% unemployment to tackle, that’ll give them paying job at the end of their studies.)

However, the sentiment, will and ambition of this event will hopefully engage with a wider local audience and help promote North African artists and the city itself to the wider world.

“ It’s an art exhibition that you cannot photograph, “ said Chan, by way of explaining that the works should be  experienced, not read about in a brochure.

With over 30 artists participating in Higher Atlas, 90% of whom are Moroccan,  a spanking new Ecole Supérieure des Arts Visuels ( where one of the exhibitions, Geometry and Speculation was held ) a modern King, who gave the biennale his patronage, Branson’s ambition to promote Marrakech as a cultural hub looks set to be realised. I certainly came away with the feeling that, despite the backdrop of the Arab Spring, this is a city on the up.

Marrakech Biennale looks North 0

Marrakech Biennale looks North 0


Kicking off this week is the 4th Marrakech Biennale. The opening days will see performances, debates, talks and screenings as well as the opening of the main ‘Higher Atlas’ visual arts exhibition.


“Through partnerships with African and international voices,” the Biennale hopes to “promote the status of the artist and contemporary culture in North Africa and to dynamize the regional creative scene.” Looking at the list of artists participating in the Higher Atlas exhibition, one could get the impression the intended “dialogues that [will] produce new, consensual realities” will most likely reflect a North Atlantic triangular reality with a tiny Moroccan base, since most of the contributing artists are European or American. The Moroccan artists that were included are Younes Baba-Ali, Faouzi Laatiris and Hassan Darsi. South of Morocco, they seem to have only found one artist: Pascale Marthine Tayou. So much for the African voices.

Among the movies scheduled to show in the Biennale’s film section are the dubious ‘I Am Slave’ (from 2010; Basia promises to put up a review soon), Moroccan Narjiss Nejjar’s new film ‘L’Amante du Rif’ but also writer and director Hicham Lasri’s first feature, ‘The End’, set in a postapocalyptic 1999, on the eve of the death of King Hassan II:

In the literature section, we find writers Latifa Baqa, Omar Berrada, Zahia Rahmani, Abderrahim Elkhassar and litfest veterans Ben Okri and Rian Malan.


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