“Marrakech has always been a cultural hub – a gateway to Europe and to Africa. It’s also the spiritual home of 1-54, so when the fair arrived here in 2018 there was an amazing group of organisations that were supportive of us and of Moroccan artists,” says 1-54 founder Touria El Glaoui on the occasion of its 2024 Marrakech edition. “Since then, we’ve seen many of Morocco’s contemporary art galleries – the ecosystem for which is in Casablanca – open second space in Marrakech. And they’ve gone from being Morocco focussed to representing artists from Africa and the diaspora as well. So, the idea of 1-54 Marrakech being a platform for the continent and where African galleries can exchanging among each other, rather than turning to Europe, is incredible.”

This year’s recently concluded fair at La Mamounia hotel and DaDa arts centre was its biggest yet – welcoming 27 galleries (half of which from the continent) and over 80 artists. Guests were also invited to explore a myriad of satellite shows and interventions across the city, taking in several new spaces such as Le MAP (Monde des Arts de la Parure), Loft Art Gallery, The Warehouse at Mandarin Oriental and Amina Benbouchta’s farm-cum-artists residency. The mood was one of quiet confidence as major artists from across Africa such as Amoako Boafo and Barthelemy Toguo showed alongside their Moroccan peers including Amine El Gotaibi and Amina Agueznay.

With wider infrastructure comes more support for the new generation of local artists and it was the city’s most budding photographers that caught Nataal’s eye. At the main fair, M Concept Gallery presented Iman Zaoin. Having grown up and completed an MA in migration studies in Italy, the self-taught talent turned to her camera to express her nostalgic memories of summers spent at her mother’s village in the Casablanca-Settat region. And once she relocated to Morocco in 2021, Zaoin’s passion became her vocation, going on to win the Grand Prix at the Face à la Mer Festival (Tangiers) in 2022 with her ongoing series ‘Aita’.

“Photography is my way to understand myself and connect to my roots. I’ve taken subconscious inspiration from my family’s photo albums by trying to recreate the feelings that they hold for me,” she says. The whimsical and tender series not only honours her heritage, it also aims to immortalise the way of life that her family have left behind. “In Morocco we are witnessing a rural exodus to the cities as people leave to find work. Plus, we have a problem with drought, so life is getting harder. This rural identity is fading so I want to document before it disappears.”

Journeying into the medina, Izza hosted the group show ‘Ellipsis: Eloquence of Absence’. The recently opened design hotel is another valued addition to the city’s cultural landscape with its collection of more than 300 contemporary and digital art works by the like of Leila Alaoui, Sebastião Salgado and Refik Anadol. Also wonderful to see in the mix were Ismail Zaidy and Anas Ouaziz, two more young local artists moving Moroccan photography forward. ‘Ellipsis’ spoke to these resident pieces with a curation of four Moroccan women artists – Margaux Derhy, Deborah Benzaquen, Myriam El Haïk and Amina Benbouchta – whose approaches ‘inhabit the space between the unsaid and the tangible – love takes form, heartbeats echo, memory takes matter’. Benbouchta’s ‘celestial banquet’ installation was suspended above the pool – a table festooned with sacred ceramics below some of her furious scarlet paintings. Benzaquen’s photographic triptych ‘À bout de souffle (Breathless)’ depicted a female figure plunged in water, part dream, part void. And Derhy’s exquisite embroideries honour her enigmatic great-grandmother, Messoda.

1-54 also headed out to Marrakech’s industrial zone-turned-design quarter, Sidi Ghanem, for an essential visit to Jajjah. The tea house and collaborative gallery was opened in 2022 by Morocco’s don of photography, Hassan Hajjaj. Here the community he has fostered for decades can come together in his signature technicolour surroundings. And taking centre stage for the fair was Rida Tabit with his first solo show on home ground, ‘The Other In the Self’. This emerging talent was born and raised here, only ever seeing his camera as a hobby. “It was during my master’s degree in economics that I discovered a show by Hassan Hajjaj and I was amazed that it was possible to express yourself in that way through photography. After graduation it was covid so I couldn’t find a job and decided to pursue photography instead. And now I see it as a sign from God that I have taken this path.”

Since then, Tabit has released the zine ‘In Times of Stillness’, exhibited in Switzerland and the US and won the Mustaqbal Prize in the mobile category. But Marrakech remains his forever muse, and with this show he metaphorically and literally uses Marrakech as his mirror. “I want to convey my relationship with the people of my community and how they have made me who I am. How do I represent them, and in turn, represent myself? That’s why sometimes you can me as a shadow, and sometimes you can’t,” he explains. What is arresting about these candid street life portraits and self-portraits is that the faces of his subjects are rarely fully seen. This mark of respect speaks to his love for those around him and for this extra special city. “The ultimate goal is to return to my essential wholeness, navigating through the layers of the unconscious to truly understand others, and in turn, understand myself.”