Safi – Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Marrakech will host the launch of Casablanca Art School Archives, or C.A.S.A, this evening, with a talk and book signing at its Auditorium Pierre Bergé at 7 p.m.
The book reads Casablanca itself as a laboratory of modern art and ideas. The title carries a small play on words too: C.A.S.A spells casa, house, a nod to the city whose name means white house.
It is published by Zamân Books and Carrefour des Livres. Its four editors will all be at the museum tonight to present it and sign copies, the curators Morad Montazami and Madeleine de Colnet among them.
The talk is free, but you will need to book a seat ahead.
Casablanca Art School
Casablanca Art School is one of the most important chapters in modern Moroccan art.
In 1962, six years after independence, painter Farid Belkahia assumed leadership of the city’s fine arts school and assembled a forward-thinking faculty, including Mohamed Melehi and Mohammed Chabâa.
They threw out the colonial, academic way of teaching and built something of their own, a mix of modern abstraction and Moroccan craft, from the geometry of Amazigh carpets to calligraphy and color.
Their work did not stay on the canvas. It spilled into the street, in murals and open-air shows, and it carried far beyond Morocco, which is why museums abroad keep coming back to it.
