The African Art fair 1-54 has been taking place this weekend:
1-54 Marrakech 2020 | A day at the fair, highlights from collectors
1-54 Marrakech returned to La Mamounia, 22-23 February 2020.
2020 EDITION
1-54 has carefully selected 20 leading galleries from 10 countries (Belgium, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and the United Kingdom) to exhibit at the third edition of the fair in Marrakech.
The fair will showcase the work of more than 65 artists, both emerging and established, working in a wide variety of mediums and from a range of geographical locations comprising 20 countries.
It was always important for Founding Director, Touria El Glaoui to initiate 1-54 on the African Continent, and in February 2018, the fair was successfully launched in Marrakech. This has allowed the fair to broaden its reach and further diversify its portfolio of exhibiting and promoting gallerists as well as artists who are connected to Africa, adding to the global network 1-54 has cultivated over the past seven years. Marrakech is home to one of the continent’s most dynamic arts scenes and 1-54 Marrakech aims to build on the city’s creative energy fostered by its artists, galleries and institutions.
1-54 Marrakech will be accompanied by 1-54 Forum, the fair’s extensive talks and events programme, which will include artist talks and panel discussions with international curators, artists and cultural producers, to be held at La Mamounia, ESAV and Le 18 in parallel to the fair. For the 2020 Marrakech edition, 1-54 Forum will be curated for the first time by independent art space, The Showroom, London. The project will be led by The Showroom’s curatorial team and takes its methodology from the organisation’s programme of engagement with its local north-west London community, Communal Knowledge. Entitled On focus: Communal Knowledge at Large, 1-54 Forum will explore the potential of that methodology to be translated to other contexts. Nurtured by the insightful contributions of local and international agents, 1-54 Forum will become a platform to interrogate multiple practices of socially engaged art, leading to the production of a new roadmap of organisational and institutional collective methodologies originated by this encounter between artists, activists, institutions and community organisers. The full 1-54 Marrakech 2020 Forum Programme will be announced in January 2020.
1-54 will also present a wide programme of bespoke events in partnership with Musée d’Art Contemporain Africain Al Madeen (MACAAL), musée YVES SAINT LAURENT marrakech, Montresso* Art Foundation, LE 18, Comptoir des Mines Galerie and Institut Français, amongst others. Full details of the 1-54 Public Programme to be announced in January 2020.
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Touria El Glaoui, the director and founder of 1-54, also promoted African art for years.
She is quoted in The Guardian today saying that only in the last decade have institutions begun to take it seriously: “At the Tate the collection was global but they were just missing an entire continent,” she said.
Tate and MoMa 'playing catch up' in collections of modern African art
Art fair founder says western institutions belatedly investing in contemporary art from Africa
More:
Asked whether major western art institutions were now trying to catch up by acquiring more African art, El Glaoui said: “One-hundred per cent. They’re not even hiding it.” She said that trying to get their attention had been a “slow, gradual process”, but that their investment in contemporary works from Africa was crucial. “We know when the Tate gets focused on something it brings more credibility and more gravitas to whichever part of the world they are focusing on,” said El Glaoui.
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Now all this shows that times are changing.
I try to go every year to the London edition and interviewed Touria in October 2018, for DW.
If you speak French, you can look here:
Le choix de Londres comme base s’est imposé rapidement à la fondatrice, Touria El Glaoui, pour son statut de capitale internationale, multiculturelle, ouverte sur le monde et pour sa situation géographique au carrefour de plusieurs continents. Rencontre sur place avec ce reportage de Mélissa Chemam qui a également suivi quelques artistes.
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I could have been in Marrakech this week... But I'm committed to my work, especially the students, and committed to flying less...
Yet, I personally miss Africa so much...
I wish I'd live in an era that allowed to live where my bones and DNA came from, there in beautiful North Africa. But too many obstacles...
Maybe I'll expand on this some day...
For now, enjoy the images and echos from the fair.
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