Iinaugurated in December 2021, the Collective Museum of Casablanca was forced to leave its installation at the Arab League Park on July 29, 2022.
Delacroix held that Morocco was a “place for painters”. Our painting, or rather our art (to put it simply); does it shine brightly? Opinions diverge: skeptics take a disenchanted look at our artistic and cultural landscape, which they compare to a bleak plain, while optimists highlight the plethoric creativity and sublime inventiveness of our artists.
In truth, the signs of the said field’s vitality are tangible: the works, as a whole, satisfy the quality requirement; the spaces fitted out for their exhibition proliferate; foundations drive creation; events intended to promote art and culture are regularly organised. So many gestures that denote a desire to establish an artistic and cultural culture, and that emanate from a concern to promote it.
All things considered, they are only the beginnings of land development, as the path to do so seems long and uncertain.
On the one hand, the manna is inequitably distributed, some receive the prerogative of it, while others, who are legion, are incomprehensibly deprived of it. On the other hand, the implementation of the development plan requires the mobilization of a multiplicity of authorities and institutions.
We can mention, first and foremost, the school. It is imperative that the awakening to art and culture be ensured by adequate personnel. Another requested socialization structure: television. By broadcasting artistic and cultural programs at prime time, this medium would effectively contribute to raising awareness among the general public.
The impact of these two institutions would be insignificant without the construction of several places that would permanently put art and culture within reach of amateurs. That a people – who can be profusely creative – should be weaned from such places seems strange to say the least.
Added to this cruel lack is the distressing scarcity of establishments that distribute artistic and cultural knowledge and know-how. Would it not be appropriate to increase their number in order to encourage, if not to provoke vocations?
Sad story
This happy step, it should be noted, has already been taken by the Atelier de l’Observatoire association, which had probably meditated on these words of Ernest Hemingway: “Everything passes and everything is weary, the nations, the individuals who compose them, Gone with the wind… only the beauty remains, transmitted by the artists”.
Committed to artistic and civic practices for societal change, the association focuses its actions on the margins, whether geographical (outlying districts of cities, rural areas, marginalized territories), historical (invisibilized narratives) or social (communities most vulnerable).
To do this, it experiments with alternative approaches through programs that can take several forms: meetings, surveys, workshops, exhibitions, educational programs, preservation projects (film restoration, archiving), production of works, screenings and publications.
Friday, December 10, 2021, the association had installed in the heart of the Arab League Park, in containers made available by the Local Development Company (SDL) Casa Patrimoine for a period of one year, a collective citizen museum of the memory of Casablanca (a project by the performer Mohamed Fariji and supported by the said association).
At the beginning of July 2022, a decision passed, like a letter to the post office, under the nose and beard of the said museum. Its designers, who had fully shown certain participatory projects and collections in various artistic disciplines advocating the memory of Casablanca, are offended by this coup de Jarnac. They specify, moreover, that a notice of one month was notified to them, certainly, at no time, Casa Patrimoine did not bother to advance the reasons as to its intention.
Those who have visited it, wonder by what contortion of intelligence Casa Patrimoine might have judged it “useless?!” to the point of recovering it six months before the end of the contract. Worse still, at a time when the Atelier de l’Observatoire has just been selected by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) to present this citizen museum project, between August 20 and 28, 2022.
Since its installation, two exhibitions have been organized on the tangible and intangible heritage of the city seen by its inhabitants, artists and researchers; a regional greenhouse has been installed; around twenty participatory workshops and meetings took place; some forty articles, journalistic investigations and reports were produced. With 12,000 visitors in six months, Casablancais.es of all ages have appropriated this place and thousands of children have (re)discovered some carousel fragments of the mythical Yasmina Park recovered by the care of Mohamed Fariji (carousels, posters , some worker files and entrance tickets).
It is necessary, at the end of the ends, to write quite clearly that it is necessary to hasten to invite the parties – Casa Patrimoine and L’Atelier de l’Observatoire – to bury the hatchet in order to sit at the negotiating table. . This will make it possible to put the kibosh on a vain polemic that can only serve the cause of art and culture.
For the time being, the Atelier de l’observatoire association is looking for another abandoned place in the city, which will be dedicated to researching the collective memory of the neighborhoods and marginalized stories of Casablanca.