Tag Archives: Marrakech

The Best Street Art in Marrakech

August 27, 2017 butterfly

The Moroccan city of Marrakech has stood for close to a thousand years, a city of history and culture. Also known as the Red City, Marrakech is one of the most evocative places in the world, a place to engage the senses from the vibrant colourful souks, enticing smells and spices, relaxing hammams to the architectural wonders from exquisite gardens to ornate mosques and minarets.

So it’s no surprise that the city is becoming more and more active with the street art scene, and more and more international artists are creating public art both in the old city and the French quarter, known as Gueliz. Hidden away, down unassuming side streets and inside cafes and galleries, it’s not that easy to discover Marrakech’s emerging street art installations. So we give you some tips to discover the best public art installations in town and surrounding areas.

On the side of a building on Avenue Mohamed VI, a large portrait of Marrakchi ‘Aziz’ by Beikrich greets visitors exiting the main train station. In collaboration with the Montresso Art Foundation, German artist Hendrik Beikrich pays homage to the disappearing tradesmen in Morocco, at least in the manner that they continue to work today, including zellig artists, masons, shepherds and more. Beikirch has a fascination for everyday people, those who are often photographed in the souks but never really honoured.
Rue des Vieux Marrakchis is host to one of the leading contemporary and urban art gallery David Bloch with immersive installations from international graffiti artists like REMED, Lek, Sowat, MIST.

In terms of Art festivals, since its creation in 2004 the Marrakech Biennale has grown amongst the top 20 biennales in the world, and Street Art being an inherent part of the cultural programme. In the rooftops of the souks in the Medina, Bahia Palace area, and the walls around Gueliz, the new part of Marrakech, a dozen of murals by international artists can be found wandering through the narrow colourful streets: Mad C (Germany), Dotmaster (UK), Giacomo RUN (Italy), Dag Insky (France), Kalamour (Morocco), Alexey Lucas (Russia), LX.ONE (France), Lucy McLauchlan (UK), Remi Rough (UK), Sickboy (UK) and Yesbee (UK).

Marrakech also feature the largest mural in Morocco by French artists POES and JO BER, a monumental 360 sqaure meters in the the college Tariq Ben Ziad, the largest mixed college with 2200 children. Both artists wanted to revisit the infamous board game “The game of Life”, designed to look like a video game. The Master of the game with robotic features invites the children through different seasons in a playful world, with joyful characters, and share a creative vision of life based on knowledge, sign of cultural openness and that the student aspirations and ambitions are supported regardless of their background or gender.

Last but not least the hidden gem of Marrakech is Jardin Rouge (from the Montresso Art Foundation), an artistic residency and private heaven for contemporary and street artists to experiment monumental works (with visits on appointment only).

All photos by Butterfly Art News

Marrakech, Shows

Marrakech: Tilt – Voyage Retour

July 9, 2016 butterfly

We continue our coverage behind the scenes in Marrakech at Jardin Rouge with French Graffiti artist TILT as he works on the second instalment ‘ Voyage Retour‘ of his installation that is currently exhibited at Rose Beton Festival in Toulouse.

The first part of the installation ‘Voyage Aller’ ( covered) was featured at the Marrakech Biennale ealier this year.

Tilt - Voyage Retour

Gathering items from the souk and local markets in Marrakech, Tilt and his assistant Gauthier set up the second version of the sectioned car with a roof rack loaded with objects brought back from Orient to Occident. Carefully assembled and defying laws of gravity, ‘Voyage Retour’ pays tribute to the big summer migration flows.

Tilt - Voyage Retour

Then Tilt adorns the installation with graffiti, tags and flops and secret messages.

Tilt - Voyage Retour

Here is a snapshot of the before / after result:

Tilt - Voyage Retour

Some spots have been deliberately left open for additional graffiti writers to add their touch to the final installation in Toulouse displayed at the Musee des Abattoirs. Stay tuned for more details coming soon.

View the full set of pics here

Tilt – Voyage Retour
Rose Beton Festival
Toulouse
Until 28 August 2016

Marrakech, streets

Marrakech Biennale: 360 m2 mural by POES and JO BER

May 3, 2016 butterfly 1 Comment

For the Educational Programme of the Marrakech Biennale, French artists POES and JO BER just completed the largest mural in a mixed school in Morocco, painting a monumental 360 sq meters.

For the past four years, Ryane Abdelmouhcine, Headmaster of Tariq Ben Ziad, the largest mixed college of Marrakech with 2200 children, always been creative to motivate and inspire his pupils, hence the numerous sport trophies won by his children during his tenure. He got in touch with Abdelhamid Bousaadi from the Marrakech Biennale to express his vision and how his school could be involved during the Biennale. Together with the funding of the MONTRESSO* ART FOUNDATION and the support of Hanaf and Colorado, this extraordinary project came to light.

Poes & Jo Ber Mural - The Game of Life

POES and JO BER worked together to create a revisited version of the infamous board game “The game of Life” created by Milton Bradley in 1861 and popular in the 90s.

The monumental artwork is designed to look like a video game. The Master of the game with robotic features invites the children in a playful world, with joyful characters and colourful experience. The adventure of Life goes through different seasons, starting in the spring with a growing tree of knowledge. The summer will be the time to escape and relax. The arrival of autumn reveals stairs, levels where they can gain additional knowledge. As winter comes, so does the snow and the urge to reach for the stars, and become a cosmonaut!

Through the seasons and cycle of life, artists POES and JO BER deeply desire to provide children of the college Tarik Ibn Ziad a joyful and creative vision of life based on knowledge.

Poes & Jo Ber Mural - The Game of Life

Sign of cultural openness and that the pupils aspirations and ambitions are supported, regardless of their background and gender, this one of a kind project is already the delight and pride of the boys and girls of the college Tariq Ben Ziad as they pose in front of it.

In parallel both artists POES and JO BER have been working with 30 pupils to create a collaborative 2 x 10 meters within the school.

View the full set of pics here

The ‘Game of Life’ mural by POES and JO BER is visible at the college Tarik Ibn Ziad,
rue El Bouraz, district M’Hamid in Marrakech.

Photo credit: Butterfly / Paul Etard / POES

Marrakech

Marrakech Biennale 2016 – Part I

April 28, 2016 butterfly

Marrakech Biennale

Presided by Vanessa Branson and curated by Reem FADDA, the sixth edition of the Marrakech Biennale is a festival with the mission to build bridges between the cultures through the arts, inspiring outstanding artists from all over the world to create work that responds to the magical environment of Marrakech.

Concentrated within Marrakech’s central historical sites of the El Bahia and El Badii palaces, Dar Si Saïd museum, Menara Pavilion, and Koutoubia Mosque and its surrounding minaret and cistern, the Marrakech Biennale offers visitors an immervise experience between the historical sites, the souks within the Medina and the contemporary art installations.

Marrakech Biennale

The Palais de Bahia is displaying works by the late Farid Belkahia, an artist who spent nearly his entire life in Marrakech (1934-2014). Belkahia studied and worked in Europe for several years, but eventually returned to the region, where he headed the School of Fine Art in Casablanca in the early ’60s and created abstracted pieces from rich materials resembling the Moroccan earth (wax, copper, tanned leathers), effectively replacing the European expressionists’ canvases with the organic.

Marrakech Biennale

The installation by Oscar Murillo entitled through patches of wheat, corn and mud exemplifies the artist’s ability to move across mediums, spanning painting to sculpture and interactive installation. The public is here called directly into the artwork through being able to handle large-size artworks, mainly paintings, of modest appearance.
By removing the taboo of touch and using humble and disposable, materials, the artist questions the aura and statute of the work of art and develops a new role for it in the viewer’s physical space.

Fatiha Zemmouri presents an installation at the Palais El Badii entitled À l’abri… de rien (Sheltered… From Nothing). A massive, meteor-like rock made of polystyrene and plaster appears wedged between two walls at the end of a narrow corridor.
Hovering overhead, while it recalls a ancient history and geological time, the viewer’s awareness is focussed towards a potential daunting outcome.

Colourful paintings by Moroccan artist Mohammed Chabâa, part of the radical Casablanca School of Fine Arts (mostly active in the 1960s and ’70s) also adorn the rooms to historical palaces.

View the full set of pics here

Stay tuned for the rest of our coverage where we visit the Rancinan extraodinary exhibition, the OFF and the Street Art projects of the Marrakech Biennale.

Marrakech Biennale
Until 6 May 2016
Morocco