MAMA, Algiers
The Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art. Its role in the context of culture, city, and society.
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Discussing this museum, the first of its kind in Algeria and perhaps in the Arab world and in Africa, the architect Halim Faïdi, responsible for its adaptation, speaks of rehabilitation: "... we created a new order... it is about a rehabilitation not a restoration: to rehabilitate is to inject a new function... the building remained but it is invested with a new sense...". Decorative work by famous Algerian artisans - cabinetmakers, illuminators, and miniaturists like Hamimouna or Belkhaznadji in a splendid sample of local artisanal art - will certainly create an interesting aesthetic confrontation with the future exhibitions of modern or contemporary art. It is however for this same reason that the architect’s concept was to dilate the space by painting it white, a neutral color, " from which the artworks pull away... because a museum of modern and contemporary art must be sober and as spare as possible in order to erase itself before the artworks..."
© Photo: Tarik Iles
The Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art. Its role in the context of culture, city, and society.