Tangier art trail brings creativity to historic spaces

Tangier’s annual art trail gave visitors a chance to experience visual art, music, dance and performances across seven venues on Liberty street.

Titled “Being Here,” the circuit included the Liberty hotel and Borj Kathrine, with artists presenting work shaped by personal experience, Moroccan stories and the character of the spaces around them.

Art inside an abandoned hotel

On September 13, the Liberty hotel hosted artists as part of the event. Built in the early 20th century, the hotel had remained abandoned since it closed in the 1940s.

The venue’s past became part of the artistic setting. Sophia Alami, a graphic designer from Casablanca, said her work drew on the hotel’s history and traditional designs such as henna.

“I presented a story inspired by a Moroccan tale, in which a young girl wakes up with ‘henna’ on her hand,” Alami said.

She also described her approach as an attempt to revisit a story connected to spaces that once existed in Morocco but may have since been abandoned.

“I wanted to rework a tale in which the spaces are places that existed in Morocco that may have (now) become abandoned,” she said.

Spanish photographer Ignacio G.Bolivar said his work was inspired by journeys through rural areas.

Works across Liberty street

At Borj Kathrine, artist Maxime Gralet displayed colourful clay jars. Each jar featured its own crack, blemish or delicate characteristic, giving the works individual identities.

Gralet said the installation was intended to encourage reflection on people’s inner and outer lives, as well as on sharing, exchange and vulnerability.

“It is an invitation to reconnect with what we have inside and outside, and with the notions of sharing and exchange, as well as with the fragility of our being,” he said.

Moving between the venues, visitors encountered different artistic forms while gaining an understanding of Tangier through the trail’s combination of place and performance.

The event was described as being in its sixth “addition.” Over the past few years, it has used around 30 locations and welcomed around 250 artists.

By placing creative work in both established venues and spaces marked by abandonment, “Being Here” made the city’s locations part of the experience for visitors moving through the circuit.