Meriem Berrada, artistic director of the Museum of Contemporary African Art in Marrakech: “Africa is not a bloc, and neither is its art.”

“We are not here to translate Africa into the language of others. Our goal is to create our own language, from here , with our references, our voices , and our contradictions.” This is how Meriem Berrada, artistic director of the Al Maaden Museum of Contemporary African Art (MACAAL) and one of the key figures behind the new curatorial proposal of the Marrakech art center, which reopened its doors in February 2025, expresses it.

Berrada insists that this proposal, which combines critical reflection, the recovery of African narratives , and aesthetic commitment, does not seek to impose a new canon, but rather to dismantle the hierarchical structures that have historically dominated the way art is displayed and interpreted in Africa.

For her, decolonizing the museum isn't a one-time goal, but rather an ongoing process that encompasses not only the content of the exhibitions but also the forms of management, mediation, and relationships with communities. "Decolonization can't remain symbolic. It also involves rethinking how we collect, how we write, how we narrate. Who has the right to speak? Who is represented, and from where?" she tells this newspaper from MACAAL.

The art center acts as a platform for making historically silenced narratives visible, but also as a space for aesthetic and political experimentation. Berrada sums it up this way: “The museum has to be porous. We want the artists to make us uncomfortable, to challenge us. We want the public to leave not with clear answers, but with new questions.”

With a curatorship that avoids exoticism, essentialism, and Eurocentric chronology, MACAAL offers an open, fragmented, and critical experience. For Berrada, one of the keys is to break with the idea of "representing Africa" as if it were a homogeneous unit. "Africa is not a block, and neither is its art. Each work, each artist, brings a world with it," he notes. Berrada's vision—from within and from the present—is also an invitation: to listen to other languages, to attend to other memories, to imagine other possible futures. And in this exercise, MACAAL constructs a narrative that embraces an African perspective on African art.

We're not here to translate Africa into someone else's language. Our goal is to create our own language, from here, with our references, our voices, and our contradictions.

Meriem Berrada, artistic director of the MACAAL museum

In this new phase, the museum has given the green light to the Lazraq family's private collection, one of the most comprehensive on the continent. The collection includes nearly 2,500 pieces of modern and contemporary African art, although 150 works are currently on display in a semi-permanent exhibition format. The exhibition "Seven Contours" is a seven-room tour that seeks to challenge stereotypes about Africa and its supposed lack of contemporary artistic production.

“The future of art in Africa is openly avant-garde. There is a growing ecosystem—from independent spaces to biennials, collectors, curators, and institutions—that is transforming the narrative,” Othman Lazrq, the museum's founder, explains to this newspaper. Far from offering a chronological or thematic exhibition, Seven Contours proposes a journey through verbs such as decolonize, coexist, transcribe, and converge, which articulate the exhibition and guide the visitor through a conceptual map that invites them to think about Africa from Africa.

“The question of decolonization is a constant and central theme in the current exhibition. In the Decolonize room, artists challenge colonial legacies and reclaim erased narratives, reminding us that museums cannot decolonize without also addressing broader global structures,” adds Lazrq, the son of real estate magnate Alami Lazraq.

A museum made of verbs

“You won't see walls with grand poetic titles, but rather very direct action verbs: decolonize, coexist, initiate, transcribe, converge, and weave,” Berrada explains as she walks through the museum's galleries. “There's an intention to connect cultural histories, and more specifically modern art, with geopolitics.”

At the heart of the museum is one of the most evocative pieces: Dans les bras de la terre ( In the Arms of the Earth ), by architect and anthropologist Salima Naji, an installation that pays tribute to the Amazigh villages of the High Atlas . Inspired by natural materials and traditional techniques, the work denounces the excessive use of concrete and proposes an architecture linked to the environment and memory.

Decolonization cannot remain merely symbolic. It also involves rethinking how we collect, how we write, how we narrate.

Meriem Berrada, artistic director of MACAAL

“This is a very interesting example of what we wanted to offer as a museum, not only in terms of experiences, but also in terms of tradition,” explains Berrada. The work also connects with the reconstruction work of villages and schools that Naji led after the earthquake that struck the Al Haouz region in 2023, becoming a symbol of resilience and architectural care.

The intention to connect cultural histories with modern art is also evident in the first room, Decolonizing , which addresses the legacies of colonial plunder and the need to recover our own narratives. It features Return to Authenticity , by Congolese photographer Sammy Baloji , which reflects on the relationship between Belgium and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is accompanied by works by Moroccan Farid Belkahia and Tunisian Nidhal Chamekh, among others.

Next, the Convivir room explores urban and ecological transformations resulting from contemporary migration and crises. Artists such as Billie Zangewa, with her textile work , "Sunworshipper in Central Park," offer a personal vision of identity and everyday life.

In Transcribir , the focus is on ancestral languages and signs. “For some time now, modern and contemporary artists have been interested in signs, motifs, and alphabets,” says Berrada. The piece Indyczen , by Moroccan artist M'barek Bouhchichi , stands out for its use of Tamazigh—the Amazigh language—carved on copper-covered canes. Berrada recalls that “for many years, the Sahrawi peoples (Tuaregs, Peul, and others) here in Morocco were excluded from land ownership,” an injustice the artist seeks to make visible through his work.

In the Initiate room, the spiritual dimension of art is addressed. Paintings such as those by Kwame Akoto, who was a pastor in Ghana, blend religious, political, and social references. Berrada points out that “this room is also a way of approaching the African continent as a whole, but in different layers, sources, or beliefs.” The tour continues in Converge , which shows how colonial ties, diasporas, and global dynamics have shaped contemporary African life. Among the works, a painting by Ghanaian Jeremiah Quarshie portrays a pregnant woman sitting on gasoline drums next to a foosball table in which figures representing Western leaders play with Africa as the board. “This room encapsulates how Africa influenced the world and vice versa. She lives near oil, but cannot exploit it,” Berrada comments.