The debate over Morocco’s national pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale, after three artists and curators were suddenly replaced in January, has taken another turn: the country will not have a national pavilion at all.
It started as good news for the North African country. In July, Morocco’s culture ministry announced that the country would participate with a national pavilion for the first time. Artist and writer Mahi Binebine was appointed curator, and commissioned three artists to participate: Majida Khattari, Safaa Erruas and Fatiha Zemmouri.
Majida Khattari is one of the Moroccan artists who created works for Venice © Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images
The artists were working on their pieces for a deadline of January 11, but in November, Mohamed Ben Yacoub, the director of arts at the ministry of culture, heard that there were difficulties in the process of approving the independent foundation. was created to take care of the pavilion.
Then, in mid-January, right after the artists finished their projects for the exhibition, the Ministry of Culture told them that they would not be representing Morocco at the Venice Biennale. “I did the installation and they told me: you are not. longer exposure. I was completely surprised,” says Erruas.
Including a news item World he stated that Mouna Mekouar, a Moroccan curator living in Paris, would replace the curator. However, the Venice Biennale has now confirmed that there is no official pavilion for Morocco.
Erruas says that the ministry has promised to pay the artists the costs of producing their work, and that in the future it will hold an exhibition.
Neither Mekouar nor the ministry responded to requests for comment Art Newspaper to clarify, and it is not clear why the exhibition was cancelled.
