The Marrakech Art Fair 2011

After the success of the first edition in October 2010, the Marrakech Art Fair will be back at the Palace Es Saadi from 30 September to 3 October 2011, with some fifty international modern and contemporary art galleries.

In October 2010, more than 10 000 visitors came to the inauguration of the Marrakech Art Fair, the first modern and contemporary art fair in Morocco. Thirty galleries from North Africa, the Middle East and Europe came to meet with art buffs and Moroccan and international collectors. Several sales bore testimony to the great potential of the art market in Morocco. Last year the cultural circuit lent pride of place to the contemporary art of Sub-Saharan Africa with African Stories, an exhibit organized by André Magnin upon the invitation of Hicham Daoudi.

“We are the witnesses of definite enthusiasm in Morocco for contemporary art. Therefore, we felt that a fair was necessary to boost the emergence of our artists on the international scene. The Marrakech Art Fair shows that Morocco is a venue conducive to expression and a market that henceforth has to be taken into account,” says Hicham Daoudi, the chairman of Art Holding Morocco, organizer of the Marrakech Art Fair.

In October 2011, some twenty additional galleries are expected to join the ranks of exhibitors at the Marrakech Art Fair, to represent in Marrakech the very best in modern and contemporary creation in North Africa, while also including the Middle East, Europe and even the Asia Pacific area.

“Our intention is to emphasize Turkish, Italian, Spanish, Greek and Arab galleries because of the existence of a genuine Mediterranean and Middle Eastern culture of which we are a part,” explains Fair Manager, Zineb Daoudi.

Throughout the city of Marrakech, a cultural circuit will exist in the background of the Marrakech Art Fair enabling the multiplication of meetings in conjunction with the conferences and exhibits designed to promote the sharing of art.

This program is geared to the discovery of contemporary creation of artists from the Middle East and other places inked to the history of the ochre colored city while opening up to art lovers the doors to foundations, private collectors and artist workshops.

(Information courtesy: Marrakech Art Fair PR)