Street art is a global and unstoppable trend: street art initiatives are being promoted in cities all over the world, and even in small villages to revitalize the rural environment. In this post we address the issue of street art in Morocco, because this country is no exception: there are neighborhoods and festivals of great interestYou will love to know if you like this artistic discipline so characteristic of our time.
Rabat and its Jidar Street Art Festival
The city that has ‘pulled the cart’ in recent years has been the capital, Rabat. And it has done so thanks to its Jidar Festival, which means “Wall Urban Art Festival”. Its first edition was in 2015 and, given its good reception, it has continued to be held on different walls of the city, including those of the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern Art. In its editions participate. international artistssuch as the Spanish Okuda San Miguel, the Puerto Rican Alexis Diaz or the Argentinean Facio, but also great local talents local talentssuch as Houssam El Gallal or Acoby.
Their murals can be traced in different corners of the city, representing a spectacular spectacular splash of color in front of normally white or light-colored buildings.. In addition, their compositions can be figurative, which breaks with the tradition of geometric forms that has always characterized Islamic art.
Casablanca, a city born for street art
Casablanca is the largest city in Morocco. It is also the one of the most modernIts demographic and construction boom is framed in the twentieth century. For all these reasons, its buildings and street atmosphere lend themselves to urban art, which has already permeated many of its neighborhoods.
Like in Rabat, street art festivals are also organized here, such as the CasaMoujaThe mural, in which artists of the stature of ArtKato have participated. His mural of swallows is a dialogue with the Atlantic sky and, above all, with the nearby Hassan II Mosque, from which it takes its main colors.
Other cities involved in street art
Marrakech is the city with the greatest tourist attraction in Morocco and, despite some hesitant beginnings in this field, it has already seen the birth of interesting initiatives and mural compositions by its artists, many of them installed in the Sidi Ghanem district. Sidi Ghanem neighborhoodThe city has an industrial tradition but is currently undergoing renovation. Currently, according to the site Streetartcities.com, there are more than 40 interesting murals scattered throughout the city center.
Many other coastal cities have also jumped on the urban art bandwagon. Salé, Tangier or AgadirThe city’s streets, which in this way give a more jovial and lively touch to its urban center. A good example of this is Azemmoura small town at the mouth of the Morbeya River that is experiencing a real revitalization with its modern murals, with clever play on ideas a la Banksy but with a more optimistic and hopeful background.
And special mention should be made of Asilahwhich has always been one of the most colorful cities in the country: this small and beautiful town on the northern Atlantic coast, with a medina of Portuguese air, was the first to bet on the artistic value of the murals, through the Asilah Cultural Festival of the Arts. It is true that these murals, which are renewed every summer for decades, do not 100% fit with the conception of urban art: it is not usually figurative, spray-painted, and large, but hand-painted and with a more decorative vocation, playing with doors, windows, and other elements of each house. But visiting the city during the festival is always a recommended experience that also demonstrates the transformative power of art on the urban landscape.
