The Museum of African Contemporary Art - Al Maaden (MACAAL, Marrakech) is proud to present one of the most unique continental art collections to be shown on African soil, in the same vein as Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town (South Africa) as well as the Fondation Zinsou in Cotonou (Benin). 

Fondation Alliances, which is responsible for the development of MACAAL, has been renowned for its collection and its support for artists for over twenty years, culminating in the inauguration of the museum in 2016. Since then, the museum has slowly but surely established itself as a significant institution on the international museum scene. It has cultivated local (Moroccan and African) as well as global roots through its ability to showcase African artists around the world. Having consistently constructed a well-attended programme of temporary exhibitions and a strong artistic identity, MACAAL is ready to embark on a new life, presenting itself as a new museum beginning February 2, 2025.

For the first time, following major renovations, MACAAL is presenting only its permanent collection to the public, via a specially dedicated itinerary. Welcome to a cross-disciplinary exploration of seven ‘contours’: attitudes and strategies that are presented throughout the museum, focusing on the major poetic, political, and technical issues at stake in contemporary African practices. Decolonize, Transcribe, Initiate, Cohabit, Converge, Promise, Weave (as well as the Connect room, which offers insight into the long history of contemporary African art, from independence to the present day). Based on a proposal by Morad Montazami and Madeleine de Colnet of Zamân Books & Curating, each of the seven performative verbs invites the visitor to confront these major issues, individually and collectively. 

MACAAL sees itself as a feminist museum, highlighting the great female artists of our time alongside their male counterparts; a decolonial museum, adopting a resolutely emancipated state of mind from purely Western currents of influence - and outlook; and finally, a conscious museum, taking part in debates about ideas and the major ecological, economic, and ethical issues affecting African societies. The greatest collections of traditional and contemporary African art have historically been built up outside the continent, in Western countries, often as a result of looting and cultural extractivism in a (post)colonial context. There is therefore an urgent need to rethink the very notion of ‘contemporary African art’, by inverting North-South relations with South-North relations. A pluriversal approach underlining the plurality and diversity of African worlds and their Afro-diasporic ramifications, linking the continent to the Afro-American and Afro-Pueblo spaces, to the overseas territories, to the Caribbean and beyond, to South America.  In order to welcome large and diverse audiences, the 21st century African museum must think beyond its own walls, offering visitors keys to contemporary art. The museum must act as a contact zone and resource centre for the continent's creators, as well as curators, authors, thinkers, researchers and others. Above all, the museum must be a major player in the writing of a decolonised, responsible, and inclusive history of art, with which all the continent's citizens can identify.

Led by Morad Montazami and Madeleine de Colnet, editorial and curatorial platform Zamân Books & Curating explores the counter-histories of visual modernity, with a focus on Arab, African and Asian worlds. Zamân Books has as its primary mission the dissemination of the latest international thinking about art and the image, through monographs, artists’ books, and thematic and collective publications. Recent exhibitions organised by ZBC include: Bagdad Mon Amour, Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris, 2018; Monaco-Alexandria. The Great Detour. World-Capitals and Cosmopolitan Surrealism, Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, 2021-2022; Casablanca Art School, Tate St- Ives/Sharjah Art Foundation/Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, 2023-2024, as well as the exhibition New Waves: Mohamed Melehi and the Casablanca Art School Archives, which took place at MACAAL in 2019-2020.

Scenographer and designer with a PhD in architecture, Franck Houndégla specialises in exhibition and museum design, entertainment venues, living spaces, and the enhancement of public spaces and heritage sites in France and abroad. He is the author of works of fiction and research articles, embracing a mixed disciplinary culture that links different design registers and spatial scales—space, object, and sign.

Franck Houndégla is also curator and scenographer of the exhibition Singulier Plurielles: Dans les Afriques contemporaines presented in the context of Biennale Design Saint-Etienne 2022. He teaches at the École Supérieure des Beaux-arts de Bordeaux and is a visiting lecturer at the École du Patrimoine Africain in Porto-Novo (Benin). He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in design from ENSBA Lyon and in architectural research from Université Paris-Est/Laboratoire IPRAUS - ENSA Paris-Belleville.