May I will make a bold claim: the Marrakech Biennale has rekindled much of the faith in and passion for art as it is presented in international exhibitions that I have lost in recent years.
There may have been other biennales and large exhibitions which might have evoked a similar response it is not possible to see all of them , but some jaded emotions settled in for me some time ago as I began to witness many of the machinations of the art world and its attendant markets.
Perhaps most painful for me has been the all-too-frequent mangling and misuse of words and language, and through that of clarity of thought and meaning. Clarity of thought is essential for an ethical consideration of anything, and curator Reem Fadda has thought clearly and expansively about this 6th Marrakech Biennale. It is brave and ambitious and does not waste exhibition or page space with any superficial trends or theories.
Neither is there the usual roster of names. A few are familiar; I suspect many will not be. Taken as a whole, the Biennale questions and provokes.
It has three titles, in French, Arabic and English, each with their own subtle meaning as direct translations from language to language are always a little slippery. Whatever the subtle differences, the titles propose an alternative engagement with modernity, with what has been and still is, with continuities rather than ruptures, with where different histories have led. They propose a reconsideration of modernism and its legacies, a questioning of perspectives on it, of what is understood by it, and by whom.
