Moroccan Trilogy

The exhibition Moroccan Trilogy offers a critical account of artistic experiments in Morocco since the middle of the twentieth century. The works presented were produced from 1950 to 2020, and, together with the archival documents that accompany them, constitute a journey through a history that was socially turbulent and culturally rich. The exhibition reveals the variety of artistic expressions that has characterized modern Morocco and highlights the outstanding figures from a trilogy of periods: the transition to independence (1950–1969), the Years of Lead (1970–1999), and the period of “prerevolutions” (2000– 2019). [1] Each of these eras, with its formal tendencies, central ideological issues, and historical accidents, favored the emergence of gestures that then became defining for the generations that followed.

Writing a History of Art in Morocco

The history of art is the product of a multitude of voices, the transmission of memories, and the effort to understand works in light of the context in which they were produced. In Morocco, this history draws on the earliest critical texts and the positions taken by artists in the newspapers of the 1960s as well as in blogs and social media posts from the 2000s onward. The discourse on art has always charted a course between poetic commentary and sociological analysis. Writers such as Abdelkebir Khatibi, Abdallah Laroui, and Fatima Mernissi have seized on art’s themes and issues and used them in their analyses of Moroccan society.

At a certain point, it became necessary to open the debate up to history and the new social realities that demanded a reconfiguration of the cultural fabric following the irreversible transformations of the colonial era. Promoted by Abdellatif Laâbi and the writers of the journal Souffles (Breaths) since the 1960s, this opening became imperative at a moment when Morocco faced important political and social choices; for example, when the Moroccan Jews of the Atlas Mountains and the Rif were driven into exile in Israel, at the same time that many Moroccans were being sent to Europe, which was then in the midst of rapid expansion, to work on the construction of its road and urban infrastructures.

Painters such as Ahmed Cherkaoui and Farid Belkahia and directors such as Tayeb Saddiki, who began their careers in the postindependence years, relied on modernism’s achievements as well as on such popular legacies as traditional Berber tattoos and the phenomenon of the performance space known as the halqa. [2] The dominant visual and literary language during the Years of Lead was strongly marked by the use of symbolism, both in abstract gestures and in the depiction of the suffering body, as in the work of Mohamed Kacimi, Latifa Toujani, Abbas Saladi, and Mohamed Abouelouakar. Collaboration among artists with different skills and specializations, a method explored since the early 2000s by artist Yto Barrada and more recently by Mohssin Harraki, Sara Ouhaddou, and M’barek Bouhchichi, reflects a growing recognition of the notion of progress and the positive transformation of society.

This artistic and political history is characterized by three phenomena that lie at the heart of the experience and concerns of artists in Morocco: the teaching of art, which charts a middle course between the inculcation of technical mastery and ideological formation; the advent of globalization, with its transnational networks and local preoccupations; and an engagement with the experience of everyday life, based on the conviction that art is a part of life and capable of playing a role in society in combination with cultural policy both in cities and rural environments. These three phenomena allow us to understand how artistic practices have evolved from programmatic approaches during the transition to independence to the exploration of a research field that draws on the energies of revolt in an effort to free itself from the colonial legacy and break with traditional values.

Education

Education has been central to art’s development in Morocco since the early twentieth century. The first art schools were founded as urban colonial institutions in the east, north, and west of the country with little regard for the preexisting modes of education. [3] In Oujda in the 1910s, painting workshops were opened to train artists from various communities. These at first catered to the French and Moroccan Jewish communities, with Muslims being included beginning in the mid-1920s. In Tétouan in 1945–1947, a generation of artists was trained at the École des Beaux-Arts before many of them left for Europe. [4] Casablanca’s École des Beaux-Arts opened in 1950 to meet the demands of a cosmopolitan city. These schools quickly forged ties with schools in France and Italy. Under the dual French and Spanish protectorate, they were not easily accessible to Moroccans, however. In the immediate postindependence period, they became more open but were drastically underfunded.

Traditional practitioners of Moroccan arts and crafts built cooperatives that never stopped producing and training new artisans, including during the colonial period. The École des Métiers et Arts Nationaux (School of National Arts and Crafts, Dar Sanaa) was founded in 1919 in Tétouan, which was then the capital of the Spanish protectorate. Introductions to arts and crafts were offered at Casablanca’s École des Beaux-Arts in 1964–1968 at the instigation of Mohamed Chabâa and Mohamed Melehi and with the support of Belkahia, who had been tasked with “Moroccanizing” the school. Their efforts reflected the progressive goal of seeing the technical skills of Moroccan artisans coexist with innovative forms of international art. They sought to integrate artistic production into life and to forge a modern art both rooted in Moroccan culture and in phase with the transformations underway around the world. [5] The same principle informed Chabâa’s program for the École Nationale d’Architecture (National School of Architecture) in Rabat and later the Institut National des Beaux-Arts (National Institute of Fine Arts, INBA) in Tétouan, which he directed from 1993 to 1998. Despite the generational difference, Chabâa played an active role in the emergence of younger artists who trained in the 1990s to develop a “consciousness of the gaze.” [6] Faouzi Laatiris, Hassan Echair, and others, who were trained in France and Spain, inherited this approach, even if these young artists had to go through an unlearning process upon leaving school before they could produce works that reflected and incorporated contemporary realities. [7] Globalization and the emergence of digital technologies created important markets. The École Supérieure des Arts Visuels (Superior School of Visual Arts, ESAV) in Marrakech was born of the need to train professionals capable of meeting this demand (particularly after the advent of digital television and the liberalization of the entertainment sector). [8] Almost all of the school’s graduates joined production companies, with only a few of them developing their own bodies of work.

From Moulay Ahmed Drissi to Soukaina Joual and from Khnata Bennouna to Abdellah Taïa, artistic production in Morocco has primarily occurred outside the context of schools, and most artists have pursued their careers through workshops, residencies, and domestic and international gatherings. [9] In the leçon de peinture (painting lesson) he offered during his time at L’appartement 22 (Apartment 22) in Rabat in 2002–2003, Fouad Bellamine, who had studied arts and crafts in Casablanca before teaching at the Centre Pédagogique Régional (Regional Educational Center) in Rabat, observed, “there is no Moroccan school; there are Moroccan artists.” [10] By offering other approaches to learning, individual initiatives have enabled several generations of artists to shed their academic training. Notable examples include La Source du Lion (The Lion’s Spring) in Casablanca, L’appartement 22 in Rabat, and the Cinémathèque de Tanger. [11] These initiatives opened the way for a multitude of similar projects. [12]

The Path to Globalization

As soon as the Second World War was over, the peoples of North Africa began to take an active role in their struggles for liberation, launching resistance movements and demanding independence. In Morocco, the new political parties and liberation movements initiated political struggles at the United Nations and armed actions on the ground. The National Liberation Army advocated armed struggle, while the royal family and the nationalists of the Istiqlal (Independence) Party entered negotiations with the colonial powers. [13]

The dominant cultural issues in Morocco have been linked to the global environment since the middle of the twentieth century. In Tangier, a cosmopolitan city that offered a certain freedom of action to its residents and visitors, encounters between Moroccan and international writers and artists, especially those of the Beat Generation, took place on an equal footing. Moroccan artists traveled to virtually every “bloc”—from Poland to Senegal and Iraq to Mexico, with stops in Italy and the other European countries along the way Several events—including Belkahia’s visit to the Theater Institute in Prague in 1959; Cherkaoui’s visit to the Warsaw Academy; Jilali Gharbaoui’s trip to Paris, where he became friends with Pierre Restany and Henri Michaux; and Melehi’s journey to Mexico, where he produced a public sculpture in the run-up to the 1968 Summer Olympics—sparked a renewal of the energies of resistance and the adoption of positions capable of instigating and rallying support for a critical view of the Moroccan situation, one opposed not only to the colonial spirit but to formal traditions as well. [14]

The international biennials and festivals—in Paris, São Paulo, and Alexandria (1957), Dakar (1964), Algiers (1969), Baghdad (1974), and Grenoble (1985)—also played a role in these encounters and in the discovery of Moroccan artists, even if the artists selected primarily represented official circles. Beginning in the 1970s, they were chosen by the Association Marocaine des Arts Plastiques (Moroccan Association of Plastic Arts), whose members were both the selectors and the selected.

Biennials and festivals also sprang up in Morocco, including the Rencontre Internationale des Artistes (International Artists’ Gathering) in Rabat in 1963; the second Biennale Arabe (Arab Biennial), also in Rabat, in 1976; and the Moussem d’Asilah (Asilah Arts Festival), which has existed since 1978 and is scheduled to coincide with traditional annual celebrations that ensure its popular success. [15] More recently, the Art in Marrakech (AiM) festival was founded in 2005 with the aim of expanding the range of cultural offerings in Morocco’s most touristic city. [16] Melehi participated in the first edition of the festival, bringing together Moroccan works and artists. The second edition included artist residencies in Ryad El Fenn and an exhibition at the ESAV. The third edition was held on a larger scale and gave important roles to the visual arts and the participation of international artists such as Adel Abdessemed, Francis Alÿs, Barrada, Isaac Julien, Otobong Nkanga, and James Webb, alongside Moroccan artists such as Mustapha Akrim, Batoul S’Himi, Faouzi Bensaidi, and Bouchra Ouizguen. [17]

The representation of Moroccan artists in international collections began to increase significantly with the evolution of European museum programs; in France, for example, with the opening of the Institut du Monde Arabe (Arab World Institute) in Paris in 1987 and the exhibition Magiciens de la terre (Magicians of the earth) in Paris in 1989 at the initiative of the Centre Pompidou—Musée National d’Art Moderne. The opening of museums and the establishment of modern and contemporary art collections in the Gulf countries also fueled this development. [18]

The Experience of Everyday Life

From independence to the present day, engagement with the experience of daily life has been one of Moroccan artists’ major concerns. They seek to connect art to life, to turn art into a kind of “uprising” in the service of the human, to make not just sublime artworks but useful contributions to society. [19] They wish to be at the heart of society’s most urgent concerns while also retaining the ability to set those concerns aside to produce unique and original works that speak a universal language. In 1967, responding to a questionnaire sent to Moroccan artists by the journal Souffles, Gharbaoui declared, “Our visual artistic tradition is primarily functional. Our art has expressed itself most fully in architecture. But while it began as a highly creative visual tradition (the Alhambra is a visual masterpiece), art in the Maghreb has been repeating itself for centuries. It has fallen into plagiarism.” [20] This observation emphasizes how cultural authorities, whether in the acquisitions policies of the national museums or the support accorded to artists themselves, have promoted ossified folkloric forms at the expense of creative approaches. Explorers enthralled with some of the gestures and motifs of Moroccan artisans have produced high quality publications, exhibitions, and academic articles that seek to analyze and disseminate knowledge of the field. But without the support of the political authorities, these efforts have had little influence on the younger generations. [21]

The Transition to Independence

The Morocco of the 1950s and 1960s was marked by the transition to independence after four decades of Spanish and French colonial rule. The country was no longer the same as it had been before colonization. New cities had been built, political parties had replaced the tribal system of governance, large companies had been created to exploit the country’s natural resources, and institutions had been established to manage the economy, develop the educational system, control security, and organize the various forms of religious worship.

In the art world, the period of transition to independence was marked by powerful tensions linked to the emergence of a nation alist movement represented by, among others, Cherkaoui, Belkahia, Melehi, and Houssein Miloudi, as well as the simultaneous reinforcement of an international tendency represented by Gharbaoui, Ahmed Ben Driss el Yacoubi, and Chaïbia Talal. This dualism lay at the heart of the conflict between an official art that clearly referred to the sources of Moroccan cultural identity and an art that was freed from these references and their formal systems, be they artisanal or architectural.

Tangier at this time was a city apart and saw the emergence of artists who belonged to no existing current or who created currents of their own. Located on the strait that is the crossroads of Africa and Europe, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, it was a city of internal exile for artists and writers of all backgrounds. The Beat Generation writers turned Tangier into a refuge and space for reflection. Yacoubi, Mohamed Choukri, and Mohammed M’rabet were already rubbing shoulders there with Paul Bowles, Brion Gysin, and Jean Genet in the 1960s. The Rolling Stones encountered the musicians of Jajouka there at the same time.

The Years of Lead

The following period, from the early 1970s to the late 1990s, saw the peak of the Years of Lead. These, the most violent decades of the postindependence period, began with attempted military coups in 1971 and 1972. They ended with a respite in the late 1990s that ushered in a moment of “political transition,” bringing together the Makhzen—the government in power—and the opposition movements, some of whose leaders returned from exile to share power within the framework of a broad reconciliation. [22] In 1972, the journal Souffles was banned. [23] This same period also saw the development of a constellation of alternative publications as well as festivals and biennials that were often independent but also negotiated with the government in power and its sacralization of the national heritage. [24] Artists such as Toujani and Kacimi produced politically engaged works and took part alongside poets and other intellectuals in movements that sought to expose abuses. [25] Many artists opted for exile, including Baghdad Benas, who left for Canada in 1981 after the violent repression of social movements in Rabat and Casablanca. Other poets and writers were imprisoned, among them Laâbi, who was jailed from 1972 to 1978, and Abdallah Zrika, who was arrested in 1978 and imprisoned for two years following the publication in 1977 of his poems Danse de la tête et de la rose, or Dance of the head and the rose. The list of disappearances and arrests is long, as made clear by the report of the Instance Équité et Réconciliation (Equity and Reconciliation Commission) chaired by Driss Benzekri, himself a victim of government abuses.

The Renewal of the 2000s

The late 1990s in Morocco were marked by democratic transition and a new openness in the media, which paved the way for the new hyperconnected era in which information technologies would be widely instrumentalized. [26] The early 2000s brought a fresh impetus. A generation of artists began to employ new materials, new media seemed to convey a freedom to express, and, above all, human rights defenders succeeded in sparking investigations into the disappeared of the Years of Lead. The period was also marked by social and political instability due to the growing power of populist and Islamist parties in North Africa. The terrorist attacks of May 16, 2003, in Casablanca forced the government to contend with the living conditions of society’s poorest members, particularly in the shantytowns where most of the suicide bombers involved in the Hotel Farah and restaurant Casa de España attacks had grown up.

The 2000s were dominated by the centrality of new social and ecological issues. The globalization of communications networks brought real-time attention to the problems, both political and ecological, that confronted the people and opened up spaces for dialogue. Without these spaces, the ability of humanity’s various groups to coexist in harmony with one another and with the other constituents of life on earth would be tenuous.

Generation 00 broke with previous generations in all fields of creative endeavor, driven by a desire to go beyond complicity with a system that produced inequalities. [27] This rupture is evident in the emergence of a generation of artists who endorsed the abandonment of formal conventions of painting and demanded an active role in the political community. The art forms of these years were full participants in the spaces of communication and exchange as well as in the physical meeting places created by the artists themselves. These intellectuals and artists felt the need to meet and interact with one another and to speak directly to their contemporaries outside the official festivals. They strove to have their work recognized as both a source of meaning and a useful contribution to society.

In 1996, Mounir Fatmi, who lived in Rabat at the time, began to erase his paintings. Hicham Benohoud took his personal experience as the starting point for his work, in particular his relationship to his family, especially the figure of his father, and adopted a principle that freed him from any specific technique and allowed him to use any material or image capable of reflecting social realities. In 2006, Maria Karim made the video Wafa-Lisa, which gives the floor to a young woman who describes her unease, speaking of her desire to leave Morocco, her decision to stay in the country, and her dream of equality and justice. Souad Guennoun joined unemployed university graduates in their struggle against injustice, placing her art in the service of political convictions. [28] Younes Rahmoun began to gravitate toward an absolute minimalism that expressed his desire to make the immaterial perceptible. Safaa Erruas adopted an incisive approach in works that seek to renew the concept of female identity. Other artists worked in a similar vein, including Jamila Lamrani.

Mustapha Akrim emerged later with a reflection on the notion of work that situates his production in a middle ground between artwork and stone or masonry work. His experience as an assistant mason at construction sites alongside his father made him aware of the essence of work as productive of meaning. He introduces materials from the building industry into his art.

After the wave of Arab Spring uprisings, in which communication technologies and social media played a central role, artists became interested in “hyperactivity,” as Karim Rafi calls it, with an acute awareness of historical and social realities. The formal languages adopted range from text and installation to films that deal with social phenomena and express a desire for change, as in the work of Randa Maroufi. [29] The imaginary at work in these temporary spaces can be seen in Mohammed Laouli’s interventions in the working-class neighborhoods of the city of Salé, projects that are documented in photographs and videos that turn a poetic eye on the outskirts of cities.

A History Beginning to be Written

Since the middle of the last century, Morocco has seen the emergence of thousands of artists who have played important roles in the evolution of the country’s artistic scene and the education of subsequent generations. But the absence of an institutional apparatus capable of incorporating art into the economic and educational system has meant that the degree to which artworks participate in the people’s education and the larger project of society is small. Paradoxically, this lack of investment has represented an opportunity for the development of an art scene in the north, particularly Tétouan and Tangier, where artists have rubbed shoulders both with school as a precarious institution and with the streets of Tangier, inspiring such great artists and writers as Yacoubi and Choukri. The artists of the north—Chabâa, Melehi, and Mohamed Ataallah—developed Casablanca’s École des Beaux-Arts and made it the legend it is today. The art schools in Tétouan and Tangier developed an eclectic spirit by default, leaving artists the space to forge a creative connection with the realities of a rapidly changing Morocco torn between identitarian conservatism and uncertain progress.

During the Years of Lead, most of these artists had survived through other pursuits, their production more often than not reduced to cultural activities intended to sustain the temporary structures of the populist festivals in the cities. However, several corporate collections did much to stimulate artistic production while still allowing a certain degree of independence. The Banque Commerciale du Maroc (Commercial Bank of Morocco), the ONA Group (Omnium North Africa), and the Office Chérifien des Phosphates (the state owned oil company) were among the most active patrons acquiring paintings in the 1990s. Their purchasing activity has fallen off since the 2000s, however, particularly in the face of international competition, as European museums began to expand their historical collections and include the work of artists from Morocco. The establishment of collections in the Gulf countries and the proliferation of international biennials have brought a high degree of visibility to Moroccan artists and contributed to their success.

Moroccan Trilogy is intended as a study of the legacy of postindependence Morocco and as an exploration of contemporary production, interrogating the art histories recorded in books by passionate art lovers such as Mohammed Sijelmassi and Latifa Serghini and by European art critics, authors, and friends of Morocco such as Restany and Toni Maraini. [30] Through the variety of types of representation and the sheer profusion of art forms it includes, postindependence Moroccan art affirms the active role that art, in its multiple forms, can play in the lives of individuals and society, beyond any notion of ideological or moralizing centrality. What Moroccan art has to teach us, from the period of independence to the eve of the Arab Spring, is the possibility of generating meaning, imagining justice, and dreaming equality in a world of meaninglessness, injustice, and inequality in search of cultural, social, and human progress in the contemporary era. This segment of Morocco’s history can help us to understand its present and enable us to conceive its future. Art eludes the culture that precedes it, slips through the fingers of the systems that provoke it, and creates values that withstand the test of history by looking history right in the eyes.

© Abdellah Karroum
Text part of the introductory essay published in the book accompanying the exhibition.

Notes:

1. The first of these periods encompasses the years of resistance and negotiation that culminated in independence in 1956; those of the formation of the independent Moroccan state and the reunification of the regions previously under Spanish or French control, in particular with the construction of the Route de l’Unité (Unity Road); and, finally, the parliamentary phase from 1963 to 1965 and the state of emergency that followed it. “Years of Lead” refers to the years of internal conflict and violence between the government and the ideological opposition and resistance movements, both Marxist and Islamist. During this period, dozens of activists were kidnapped or arrested, including artists, poets, and human rights defenders. Among the most notorious sites of torture and execution were Derb Moulay Cherif in Casablanca, Tazmamart, and Kalaat M’gouna. Prerevolutions refers to the radical changes sparked by popular uprisings, technological development, and global climate change. The 2000s, which preceded the Arab Spring revolutions, saw the emergence of Generation 00, which made a radical break with the past on the formal, technical, symbolic, and political levels of art. This movement for change continued in the 2010s, which were marked by the disillusionment of the population and the intellectuals, culminating in uprisings (in which artists have been heavily involved) against racism and corruption.

2. The term halqa refers to a stage defined by a circle of spectators who surround the performer, generally in the souks. Peter Brook terms this principle the “empty space.” Peter Brook, The Empty Space: A Book about the Theatre: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate (London: MacGibbon and Kee, 1968).

3. Prior to the colonial period, teaching in Morocco took place in workshops and at the actual sites of production, whether in architecture or painting.

4. Mohamed Melehi studied in Seville and then in Madrid. Mohamed Chabâa left to study in Rome. The École des Beaux-Arts in Paris admitted several Moroccan students as academic degree candidates (André Elbaz) or as participants in independent workshops (Melehi). Farid Belkahia studied in Paris and Prague.

5. Learning a skill (san’a) was valued because it led to a social position as a specialist (m’allem), which was superior to that of a worker.

6. Mohamed Chabâa, Conscience du regard (Rabat: Union des Écrivains du Maroc, 2001).

7. This is why Mohssin Harraki, in opposing the academic Beaux-Arts curriculum, which included the use of plaster casts of ancient statues and the study of academic painting, produced his peintures d’inconscience (paintings of unconsciousness) in 2007.

8. Founded by Vincent Melilli and Susanna Biedermann, ESAV-Marrakech is a private institution of international caliber that offers programs in the professions connected with cinema, media, and graphic design.

9. Morocco has had four studios at the Cité des Arts in Paris since the 1990s, accommodating artists of all ages. The explosion of international biennials, the programming of European and African museums, and the development of museums in the Persian Gulf have given young artists the opportunity to take risks and to make a living from their work.

10. From December 2002 to February 2003, Bellamine occupied L’appartement 22, where he worked in public and led a series of meetings and readings with other artists and authors, including Ahmed Essyad, Edmond Amran El Maleh, and Tarek Oulalou, as well as offering a painting workshop for children.

11. La Source du Lion was founded by Hassan Darsi at the École Aïn Sebâa in 1995. Its inaugural activi ties were a series of meetings and educational workshops. L’appartement 22 was founded by Abdellah Karroum in 2002. It organized a series of training programs and seminars, including “L’œuvre plus que jamais” (The work, now more than ever) in 2005, “3Rs Maroc” with Seamus Farrell in 2007, and “Les enjeux et les réseaux de l’art à l’époque post-contemporaine” (Art’s central issues and networks in the postcontemporary era) in 2009. The Cinémathèque de Tanger was founded by Barrada, who turned the Cinéma Rif movie theater into a residential facility and a setting for multidisciplinary projects that sought to educate and integrate young people and train women in various professions, enabling them to form coopera tives and generate creative employment opportunities; for example, through the Association Darna.

12. L’Appart du 2ième (The Apartment on the Second Floor) in Casablanca was founded by Khadija Kabbaj. Le Cube (The Cube) in Rabat was founded by Driss Benabdallah and Elisabeth Pisternik. Le 18 in Marrakech was founded by Laila Hida.

13. After independence, the Rif section of the National Liberation Army continued its struggle against the new regime. It was suppressed by the future King Hassan II and General Mohammad Oufkir in 1958–1959

14. For more on Gharbaoui’s trip, see Dounia Benqassem, Dictionnaire des artistes contemporains du Maroc (Casablanca: Éditions AfricArts, 2010).

15. Initially planned to take place in Palestine, the second Arab Biennial was ultimately held in Rabat in 1976 with the participation of Iraqi, Palestinian, Algerian, and Syrian artists, among others. The Moussem d’Asilah is an annual celebration that was transformed into an arts festival with a program primarily comprising murals in the narrow streets of the medina.

16. The AiM festival was founded by a group of collectors and art lovers, including Vanessa Branson, the creator of the Wonderful Collection in London, and Abel Damoussi, a business man and collector.

17. The biennial included a literary and cinematic program as well as an international exhibition, A Proposal for Articulating Works and Places. For more information, see: http://works-and-places.appartement22.com/.

18. Groups of works were acquired by Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Qatar, in the 1990s and by private collections in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

19. The architect and photographer Souad Guennoun joined women’s groups, squatted with unemployed university graduates, wandered Casablanca with the city’s street children, and listened to the stories of women boxers and bartenders. Chabâa spoke of the “mistake of separating industry and art” and urged “the combining of artists and artisans” within the same institutions in his project for an Atelier des Arts et Métiers, Arts and Crafts Workshop) at INBA in 1998.

20. Souffles, no. 7–8 (1967): 54.

21. For a discussion of some of the exhibitions produced by Moroccan artists, see Etel Adnan, Maroc: L’artisanat créateur (Casablanca: Éditions Almadariss, 1983).

22. The Instance Équité et Réconciliation (Equity and Reconciliation Commission), chaired by Driss Benzekri, uncovered numerous acts of torture and crimes committed by the Makhzen in the Years of Lead. The former exile Abderrahmane Youssoufi became prime minister in 1998.

23. The journal Souffles was founded in the wake of the armed repression of the student uprising on March 23, 1965. Published from 1966 to 1971, it preserves and transmits the memory of a period that saw the emergence of transnational artistic practices. Its articles were short and to the point, occupying a middle ground between critical address and political action, and often written on tight deadlines. Despite being banned in 1971, the journal produced four books in collaboration with poets and artists.

24. The publications include Intégral (Complete), Lamalif, and multiple publications supported by the Union des Écrivains Marocains (Moroccan Writers’ Association). The exhibitions include the second Arab Biennial in Rabat (1976) and the Moussem d’Asilah (1978).

25. Toujani’s oeuvre denounces the repression, imprisonment, and torture of activists by the Moroccan state. Her work reflects suffering and social tensions in forms of representation that place the human body at the center of her paintings and engravings.

26. Digital television became an influential medium at the local and regional levels, and control of information became a priority for many countries. The Al Jazeera channel was launched in 1997, providing access to information and points of view that were often opposed to those of governments in power in the Arab world.

27. Generation 00 is named for the decade of the 2000s. See Abdellah Karroum, “Generation 00: The Artist as Citizen,” L’appartement 22, February 12, 2015, http://www.appartement22.com/

28. The artist joined the demonstrations in front of the parliament in Rabat, where he produced photographs and films that were widely distributed as tools of revelation and consciousness raising.

29. See the films The Park (2015) and Bab Sebta (2019)

30. Mohammed Sijelmassi, La peinture marocaine (Paris: Arthaud, 1972). Serghini is the author of several biographies, including of Yacoubi (2015), Mohamed Hamri (2017), and Gharbaoui (2019). Restany is an art critic who curated the exhibition at the Rencontre Internationale des Artistes in Rabat in 1963–1964. Maraini is the wife of the artist Mohamed Melehi and was a contributor to the journal Souffles.