Back to basics for 1-54 Marrakech
This year, 1-54 reconsolidates around La Mamounia, with a strong Moroccan presence and the high-profile return of heavyweights such as Vigo, Gallery 1957 and Cécile Fakhoury.
After two years experimenting with an extension at DaDa, the fair is once again concentrated at La Mamounia. Audience flow and the centralization of sales largely explain the decision. DaDa nevertheless remains within the fair’s ecosystem as one of the key sites of the off-program, which turns 1-54 Marrakech into a broader, city-wide experience. This year it hosts the special project In Between Blues, an exhibition devoted to the color blue, initiated by the Franco-Rwandan curator Roger Karera and the Ivorian designer Jean Servais Somian from the Ablakassa collective. The seventh edition, held from February 5 to 8, brings together twenty-two galleries, roughly a third of them Moroccan. Loft Art Gallery, long associated with its star and highly marketable artists such as Mous Lamrabet and Amina Agueznay, freshens its lineup with newcomers Mehdi-Georges Lahlou and Mustapha Azeroual, alongside Nassim Azarzar and M’hammed Kilito. In parallel, Azeroual is the subject of a solo exhibition at the Maison Denise Masson, presented by the Institut français de Marrakech.
Returns and the Moderns
In recent editions, 1-54 has increasingly opened itself up to Modern art. London powerhouse Vigo marks its comeback with a solo presentation of the Sudanese artist Ibrahim El-Salahi, a key figure of the Khartoum School and a pillar of African modernism. Meanwhile, Paris-based Loeve & Co again embraces the strategy that proved effective last year, showing works by Roland Dorcély, a major figure of the Haitian avant-garde of the 1950s and 60s, whose work was highlighted in the exhibition“Paris Noir” at the Centre Pompidou. As a new focus, it also brings attention to Moroccan artist Mohammed Mrabet, whose art-brut–inflected practice is still awaiting wider recognition in Morocco.
