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By Julia Cabrera
Rabat – Morocco will organize L’Afrique en capitale’ (Africa in the Capital), a month long art festival featuring expositions, concerts, productions and literary events beginning March 28. The event will celebrate the country’s return to the African Union.
According to Spanish news outlet, El País, The expositions will spread across the city of Rabat to demonstrate that Morocco is proud to be African.
“We want to welcome the African family, in line with the King’s speech in Addis Ababa and through our hospitality,” said Mehdi Qotbi, president of the Moroccan National Museum Foundation.
The Moroccan National Museum Foundation is the main organizer for this event. They count with the support of the best universities in Rabat, as well as, theaters, cinemas, art galleries, cultural centers, railroads and trains.
Throughout the event, the Casablanca-Rabat train route walls will serve as canvases for street artist like the Ivorianartist and rapper, Médéric Turay. In the same light, Malian artist Abdoulaye Konaté will decorate Rabat’s tramways.
The Celebration, which includes 36 events in a total of 18 different spaces within Rabat, will serve to open doors according to El País. Allowing people to express themselves through art can break borders, “If this door is crossed in the public space of a Muslim country, in front of the curious Moroccan eyes and the willingness of Moroccans to welcome foreign concepts, the success of this type of convocations is assured,” said writer for El País, Analia Iglesias.
“Because in a culture that promotes discretion, the fact that someone can express himself with brush strokes and through the loud voice of a mural exposed to everyone, effectively opens doors.”
According to El País there will also be exhibitions hosted in smaller art spaces that will allow a deeper look inside Morocco. The Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary art, for example, will host the exhibitions of Wahid Chehata and Congolese Kouka Ntadi and the homage to two great References of the recently deceased African photography: Malik Sidibé and Leila Alaoui.
After an event packed month hosting talented Artist and speakers from many African countries, the celebration will end with a music festival starring Moroccan composer Aziz Sahmaoui, as well as large bandswith Moroccan, Senegalese, Mozambican and Ivorian musicians.
Rabat is the light city on a continental scale and from here we propose to reflect African art to the world,” Qotbi said.
