Rabat extends its status as Africa's cultural capital from March 28 to April 28 Rabat honored the plurality of Africa's artistic talents in tribute to Morocco's return to the African Union. To mark the occasion, the National Museum Foundation and its partners put together a program featuring a host of artistic events across the city. Some, such as the exhibitions at the Mohamed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, were so successful that they have been extended until the end of May.
AFRICA IN THE CAPITAL
Launched as part of the "Afrique en Capitale" event, the three exhibitions inaugurated by Kings Mohammed VI of Morocco and Abdallah II of Jordan were due to run until April 28. They will now be extended until the end of May, says Mehdi Qotbi, Chairman of the Fondation nationale de Musées.
Diseye Tanguay. 2016. Nigeria
Inaugurated by H.M. King Mohammed VI in October 2014, the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMVI) is the first museum institution in the Kingdom to be devoted entirely to modern and contemporary art, and also the first public institution to meet international museum standards.
Guerresi Maïmouna. 2014.Senegal
Situated in the heart of the capital, whose architecture is imbued with both a specific identity and a rich cultural diversity, the building was born of a desire to integrate
urban fabric. To achieve this, traditional motifs were reinvested and stylized, bringing a contemporary touch to the building.
On the first floor, in a small room named "Hommage" for the occasion, the space presents some of the work of three photographers who passed away in 2016. These are Leila Alaoui with an extract from the series "Les Marocains", Othmane Dilami with "Les Musiciens de la transe" and Malian photographer Malik Sidibé with "L'œil de Bamako".
On the second floor, "Un regard sur l'Afrique" brings together "an ensemble of works from a unique private collection. It offers an original exploration of certain trends in contemporary African art through an ensemble of paintings, sculptures, installations and design objects".
We admire the magnificent work of Ivorian Aboudia, Italian-Senegalese Maïmouna Guerresi, the shimmering colors of Congolese Chéri-Chenin, the African braids of Diseye Tantua from Nigeria and an artistic diversity that confirms the richness of the Continent.
Nike Okundaye. 2001. Nigeria
In the basement of the museum, the "Présence commune" exhibition was created in collaboration with the Swiss Montresso Foundation. In an atmosphere typically reminiscent of a parking lot, the original vocation of the site, the work of Franco-Congolese artist Kouka Ntadi and Franco-Tunisian artist Wahib Chehata, two regular guests at the Jardin Rouge artists' residency in Marrakech, is displayed between half-light and yellowish light.
We discover the work of Chehata, born in 1968 in Sousse, totally inhabited by the paintings of Caravaggio, Turner and Delacroix. His photographs, which range from scenes to portraits, are disconcerting in their strength and unease. The artist has lived in Mali since 2014. The Renaissance series is a tribute to the city of lights, Timbuktu.
For his part, Kouka, a painter born in 1981 and a graduate of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, is characterized by the expressiveness and spontaneity of his gestures, deliberately allowing imperfections and imprecisions to appear.
imperfections, inaccuracies and drips.
From the beginning of June, the "Face à Picasso" exhibition at the MMVI will bring together over a hundred works (paintings, sculptures, ceramics, photographs, drawings and prints), drawn from
from the collections of the Musée national Picasso-Paris.