Thursday, April 05, 2018

Tangier: Books and art to celebrate the return of spring


More than a book fair, a real artistic and literary festival with concerts, workshops for children, theatre. This year, the Book and Arts Fair in Tangier has chosen to put on its spring clothes and renew its program for the summer season. For its 22nd edition, it becomes the "Spring of the Book and Arts of Tangier" and is more inclusive by diversifying the proposed activities, from April 19 to 22, at the Palace of the Italian Institutions and other places in Tangier

"An event, whatever it is, must be renewed since it decreases after a certain number of years. We wanted to give it a new birth hence the choice of 'spring', a symbol of regeneration," explains Jerome Migayrou, director of the French Institute of Tangier who organises the show in partnership with the Tangier Region Cultural Action Association.

This change will not only be aesthetic, since it also accompanies a new approach and a more varied program that includes concerts, workshops for children, screenings or theater. "Thanks to the abundance of activities and disciplines offered, everyone will be able to choose their activity in relation to what interests them the most."

The Palace of Italian Institutions will bring together the stands of different publishing houses and bookstores in the city, but other parts of the city will also host the many events of this event. The show will be held in schools, colleges and high schools, as well as at the Cinémathèque de Tangier, where Moroccan and French films and documentaries such as "Braguino" (2017) by Clément Cogitore will be screened.

For this new format, the show launches the first edition of "Tangier Arts Tour", a circuit that art lovers can follow to visit all the galleries of the city, which have set up 12 exhibitions under the theme of The Encounter. Visitors will find the abstract works of Nourredine Lahrech and Mhamed Cherifi at the Mohamed Drissi Gallery, the architectural photographs of Hicham Gardaf at the Delacroix Gallery, the anonymous portraits of Jaimal Odera at the American Legation, or the surprising paintings of Abdelkader Melehi at the Dar art gallery.

The Photoloft, Mahal art space, Conil, Artingis, Ibn Khaldoun, Conil Volubilis, Medina Art galleries and the Les insolites bookshop will exhibit the works of artists from Morocco and elsewhere throughout the Salon.

After celebrating youth in 2017 , the show chose this year to focus on "The Meeting - the other's own". This theme will be explored through the many round tables animated by one of the mainly Moroccan authors and experts, notably Driss Ksikes, Jalil Bennani, Abdessamad Dialmy, Fouad Laroui, Sana El Aji or Abdelfattah Kilito.

"We wanted to explore the importance of the other, of those who are different from us to show that this difference is fundamental in our society and that as long as we try to standardize behavior, cultural proposals ... we are impoverishing the world," explains Migayrou.

Always in this festival spirit, several concerts and musical readings are planned during this show in the Palace of the Italian Institutions. Rapper Muslim and singer Hamid Elhadri will ignite the palace scene on April 20, after a musical reading of Eric Reinhardt's "The Room of the Spouses" and Melodie Richard.

The next day, the evening will begin with a recital of poetry with Abdellatif Laâbi, followed by the concert of the mythical group Gnawa Diffusion. Finally, the classical music will close the show with the meeting of the Ukrainian pianist Nathalia Romanenko and the French writer Marek Halter who will tell the story of the fate of three women in Islam.

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