Contested Territory: How the Marrakech Biennale Reshaped Cultural Diplomacy in North Africa

On a mild February afternoon in 2016, the sprawling ruins of El Badi Palace—once the most opulent royal residence in North Africa—buzzed with an unusual energy. Contemporary artists from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, and beyond moved through the 16th-century spaces, transforming ancient chambers into installations that engaged with both history and present. Meanwhile, the palace's sprawling courtyard hosted a raucous performance by Master Musicians of Jajouka, whose trance-inducing sounds have echoed through Morocco's mountains for over 1,000 years. This scene from the sixth and final Marrakech Biennale encapsulated something remarkable: an artistic event that operated simultaneously as cultural diplomacy, postcolonial statement, and regional power move.

The Marrakech Biennale was never just an art exhibition. From its inception in 2005, it functioned as a complex project in cultural politics—one that positioned Morocco as the progressive face of North African culture while subtly reinforcing the country's geopolitical ambitions. The timing was far from coincidental; the Biennale launched in the aftermath of the 2003 Casablanca bombings, when Morocco sought to counter rising perceptions of Islamic extremism with a narrative of cultural openness and moderation.

"The Biennale was born from a particular historical moment," explains Dr. Hamid Irbouh, art historian at Mohammed V University in Rabat. "Morocco was repositioning itself as a bridge between Europe and Africa, between Islamic tradition and Western modernity. The Biennale became a vehicle for articulating this identity on the cultural stage."

British gallery owner Vanessa Branson, the Biennale's founder and sister of entrepreneur Richard Branson, framed the initiative primarily as a cultural exchange. Yet from the beginning, her vision aligned with Morocco's broader diplomatic strategy under King Mohammed VI, who had ascended to the throne in 1999 with promises of liberalization and international engagement. His government provided discreet backing for the Biennale, particularly as it evolved from the initial "Arts in Marrakech" festival into a more ambitious international platform by 2009.

The royal patronage highlighted an intriguing tension at the heart of the Biennale: it simultaneously offered a platform for artistic expressions that might challenge authority while operating within the framework of an authoritarian monarchy eager to project a progressive image. This balancing act became increasingly complex as the Arab Spring swept across North Africa in 2011, leading to regime changes in neighboring countries while Morocco enacted constitutional reforms to preserve stability.

Against this backdrop, the fourth edition of the Marrakech Biennale in 2012 marked a significant shift in its cultural positioning. Curated by Carson Chan and Nadim Samman, it moved away from showcasing international stars in favor of commissioned works that engaged directly with Moroccan contexts. The curators prioritized collaborations between foreign artists and local craftspeople, creating what Chan described as a "productive friction" between contemporary art discourse and traditional knowledge systems.

The results were frequently revelatory. Swiss artist Ruedi Baur worked with local calligraphers to create signage systems that rendered Arabic, Tamazight (Berber), and Latin scripts as integrated visual systems rather than separate languages. American sculptor Daniel Hopp collaborated with zellige tile makers to develop installations that fragmented traditional geometric patterns into expressions of social disintegration. Such projects enacted cultural translation not as an abstract ideal but as practical, sometimes messy, negotiation.

By the fifth edition in 2014, under new leadership from Moroccan arts administrator Mohamed Amine Kabbaj, the Biennale had fully embraced its role as a regional cultural force. Notably, this coincided with Morocco's intensified economic and diplomatic engagement with sub-Saharan Africa. As Morocco invested in banking, telecommunications, and infrastructure projects across West and Central Africa, the Biennale increasingly featured artists from these regions, creating cultural connections that paralleled economic ones.

"The Biennale became a kind of soft power instrument," notes cultural policy researcher Fatima Zahra Lakrissa. "It articulated Morocco's identity as both African and global, traditional and contemporary—exactly the positioning that served its broader diplomatic agenda."

This strategic alignment reached its apogee in the sixth edition, curated by Palestinian curator Reem Fadda under the theme "Not New Now." Focused on non-Western artistic traditions and Pan-African connections, the exhibition explicitly rejected the novelty-driven logic of the global art market in favor of what Fadda termed "living traditions." Projects reframed historical practices—from textile arts to oral storytelling—as continually evolving rather than static heritage.

The curatorial framework resonated with Morocco's efforts to reclaim cultural narratives from colonial framings. Yet it also served the monarchy's interest in promoting a particular vision of Islamic moderation—one rooted in Morocco's Sufi traditions and Maliki jurisprudence, which the palace positioned as antidotes to more radical interpretations of Islam circulating in the region. The Biennale thus became a platform where aesthetic, spiritual, and political positions could be articulated through cultural expression rather than direct statement.

Perhaps the most revealing aspect of the Marrakech Biennale was its audience composition. Unlike many international biennials that primarily attract global art tourists, Marrakech maintained a dual focus: it served both the international art world and local Moroccans, particularly students. Each edition included extensive educational programs, often conducted in Darija (Moroccan Arabic) rather than the French or English that dominated official communications. These initiatives reflected a genuine commitment to developing domestic art audiences alongside international visibility.

Ironically, the Biennale's success in raising Marrakech's cultural profile contributed to its eventual demise. By 2016, the event had helped catalyze a broader arts ecosystem in the city, including private museums like MACAAL (Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden) and commercial initiatives like the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, which launched its Marrakech edition in 2018. As these better-funded entities emerged, the independently operated Biennale struggled to maintain financial sustainability.

The seventh edition, planned for 2018, was canceled due to funding shortfalls, marking the end of the Biennale's formal existence. Yet its impact persists in Morocco's cultural landscape and diplomatic positioning. Today, as the country continues to develop its role as a gateway between Europe and Africa, the legacy of the Marrakech Biennale offers a case study in how contemporary art can function simultaneously as cultural expression, diplomatic instrument, and contested territory where competing visions of identity and history are negotiated through aesthetic means.