The Musée d’Art Contemporain Africain Al Maaden in Marrakech: a case study in collecting and place-making

ABSTRACT

This case study examines the Musée d’Art Contemporain Africain Al Maaden (MACAAL), a private museum in Marrakech, Morocco, within the cultural, political and economic contexts of private philanthropy. It analyses the development of the collection of the owners of the museum within the specific context of support for the arts in the Muslim kingdom in North Africa and examines the function of the private museum which opened in 2018. In order to answer the question of the motivations for the foundation of the museum, the article describes the transition from a more traditional model of philanthropy and patronage to a new entrepreneurial model of giving in line with a generational shift in the management of the collection and opens up some possible explanations for this shift. The complex relationship between the State and the collecting family that touches not only on cultural but also political and economic domains is explored. Furthermore, a shift of alignment from the MENASA region to a Pan African context in line with state policy is discussed. This serves to situate the private museum within a broader context and to make a contribution to the study of private patronage and museums in emerging economies.

KEYWORDS:

• Collecting
• cultural philanthropy
• emerging art markets
• Morocco
• Pan Africa
• private museums

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Stephanie Dieckvoss is an art historian with a special interest in art markets and works as an academic and journalist. She is a senior lecturer at the Kingston School of Art and course director of the MA Art Market & Appraisal; she also teaches at Sotheby's Institute of Art and Central Saint Martins. Her research interests centre around contemporary art markets, cultural globalisation and emerging markets and the art school as institution. She currently focuses her research on art fairs and power and on private museums in emerging markets. She received a TECHNE PhD scholarship in 2018.

Notes

1 In a piece for Wallpaper, the critic and broadcaster Phillip Dodd, promoted this angle, while being the initiator of a network of private museums owners across the globe formed under the name Private Museums Summit (O’Kelly 2015).

2 Recently, the influence of givers and patrons within the cultural sphere and potential conflicts of interest has finally drawn more attention, both within the art world and academia (Brown 2019). The artist Andrea Fraser has talked and written extensively about the abuse of influence by very wealthy patrons of the arts (Fraser and Stone 2017).

3 David Schwartz in his study of the political sociology of Pierre Bourdieu argues convincingly that for Bourdieu symbolic capital is being transformed into symbolic power. While private museums support the accumulation of symbolic capital in most cases, I argue here that the strategic pursuit goes beyond a mere focus on social status.

4 The press preview for MACAAL took place on 22/2/2018. The London interview with the author took place on 13/6/2018. All interview quotes and references are taken from this interview.

5 New private museums have sprung up across the African continent in recent years. The largest impact made the 2017 opening of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Capetown, developed by collector Jochen Zeitz in partnership with the developer V&A Waterfront. Even more recently, the Norval Foundation, financed by property developer Louis Norval, opened in the same city. In West Africa, the Shyllon Museum at Pan Atlantic University in Lagos, is currently in development, as is the Chimedie Museum equally in Nigeria.

6 The term African Modernism has been disputed and rightly so. Third Text founder Rasheen Araeen has long opposed this inscription of works from non-Western cultures into a Western understanding of modernity and modernism (1989) and while the conceptual issues are not the subject of this paper, they are important. The equation of modernism with also economic progression is relevant for the arguments brought forward here. For a recent discussion of Modernism in the context of North African cultures see Rey (2019). For Alami Lazraq see “Alami Lazraq: l'architecte marocain devenu bâtisseur, et grand collectionneur!” (2014). For a more detailed analysis of Moroccan nationalism see Lawrence (2012) and Pandolfo (2000). For a general history of Modern Morocco see Miller (2013).

7 The outreach programmes include workshops for youths, school visits, free shuttle buses and a fortnightly community couscous lunch. For more information on the other cultural activities of the Foundation, which include a Sculpture Park also on the Al Madeen site, a photography award and educational programme for young people, see http://www.fondationalliances.org and http://macaal.org/en/about/foundation/.

8 Generational shifts in collecting have not been widely researched. Bourgouin (2013) however undertook a study of new elites focusing on the example of South Africa, but wider research is needed.

9 The international launch of the museum was supported by a PR campaign both within African but also internationally and the museum has since continued to work with an international PR representation. The launch campaign was extremely successful and resulted in a large number of enthusiastic reviews of the museum, which while acknowledging the corporate roots of the museums, focused little on the political and economic context of the organisation. The museum's website lists both PR representatives as well as give an overview of the press reviews. See http://macaal.org/en/press/contact/.

10 Interview with the author 13/6/2018. For another interview with Othman Lazraq see “MACAAL at the New Crossroads of African Contemporary Art. Interview with Othman Lazraq” (2017). In this regard it is also interesting to note how many (not only) African Private museum owners have links to property development: The Zeitz Museum's partner V&A Waterfront, the Norval Foundation and of course in other regions collectors such as Ramin Salsali of the Dubai Salsali Private Museum or Liu Yiquian, owner of the Long Museums in China.