The Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts (MMP+) will be dedicated to exhibiting the best Moroccan, North African and international lens-based and traditional fine art. Housed in a new architecturally distinct building designed by renowned architect Sir David Chipperfield, the Museum will sit adjacent to the historic Menara Gardens in Marrakech. Marrakech, located in the heart of Morocco, hosts a vast and diverse pool of some 9 million international visitors annually and is the home of both the Marrakech International Film Festival and the Marrakech Biennale.
The Menara Gardens – historically the link between the Atlas Mountains, life-giving water and the old walled city is a fitting place to build a museum which will surely become the 21st century link between the culturally diverse people of Morocco, her visitors and the international world of art and culture.
The Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts will be housed in a 6,000+ m2 state of the art museum facility. This will be a transformative project for the Arts in Morocco and indeed all of Africa. When completed, MMP+ will house galleries, a theatre, café, bookshop, public spaces and extensive educational facilities – all of the components that create a lively innovative museum project. MMP+ will be a cultural epicenter in the region; its location will serve as the heart of a multi-point star drawing scholars, students, and visitors from around the world.
The Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts will focus its collecting across 3 easily definable and broadly interpretive genres of photography and lens based media both static and moving. (a) Architecture / Design (b) Photojournalism (c) Fashion / Culture. MMP+ will form a hub for education across many areas of museum sciences. Its goal is to take students from Morocco and the region, whose interests are in curatorial studies, connoisseurship, museum operations, development etc and teach them both within the confines of the museum, interaction within their local communities and by sending them abroad to work at some of the world’s great institutions and universities the hands-on practice of museum science. Through tightly disciplined acquisitions MMP+ will build a collection that will allow diverse use both in its exhibition program and education. It will also retain the flexibility to exhibit a broad range of works of art across all media. With a rich program of exhibitions, education and cultural exchange the Museum will be the first such institution on the African Continent and will broaden the artistic experience across cultural boundaries to form greater understanding and tolerance.
Opening in January 2013 The Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts at the Badii Palace in Marrakech will be the temporary home while the permanent museum building is constructed. MMP+ at Badii Palace will have a rich, full program of exhibitions, education, cultural exchange and outreach. Functioning as a “project” space, the Badii Palace site will be a vibrant laboratory for the development of the programs and exhibitions that will be housed in the permanent building when complete.
