Efinally! After two years of postponement, due to the Covid pandemic, the International Biennale of Casablanca (BIC) was able to launch its 5e edition, celebrating its 10th anniversary, in three exhibition venues: American Arts Center, SoArt Gallery and BIC Project Center. The 17 guest artists, with a fine international and female representation, portray contemporary issues that cross societies, whether from the South or the North: the question of gender, race, decolonization, education. Mostapha Romli, photographer, but also founder and president of the Premium Morocco Foundation, carries this biennale at arm’s length. He confided in Point Afrique.
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The Africa Point: We are at the fifth edition of the International Biennale of Casablanca. Can you retrace the history of this biennale and your objectives in launching this event?
Mostafa Romli: The Biennale started in 2012, with the desire to set up an international event, not only for Moroccan artists, but rather with artists from other countries, to confront different perspectives. We wanted, from the start, to offer a platform that was more open and not just compartmentalised to a nation.
The second objective was to offer a biennial accessible to the population of the city, to the people of Casablanca. When we started in 2012, there was no contemporary art museum in Morocco. Now we have one in Rabat and another in Marrakech.
In Morocco, a large part of the population finds it difficult to travel, does not go to see museums and international exhibitions outside the country. The Biennale wanted to respond to this lack, by exhibiting international artists, but also a range of different artistic disciplines for the attention of this population who cannot travel. For a long time in Morocco, exhibitions were focused on painting and a little photography. Exhibitions with a discourse and a commitment, reviews, that was new.
In 2012, with the first biennale, we had a little intimidation. We showed things that were a bit more daring. We weren’t censored, but we were close to the red line. In Morocco, certain subjects remain taboo such as religion. And during the second biennial, Khadija Tnana had exhibited a hand of Fatima, made up of 246 ceramic khmissates (small hands of Fatima) and on each of the hands she had drawn a pose of the Kama-sutra. We were close to the red line, but still exposed it. She is exhibiting in this edition at the BIC Projet Space, with a performance around her play Tata Mbarkawhich evokes the taboo subject of domestic slavery.
Nudity is also somewhat taboo. She is more accepted in painting than in photography. Despite everything, we have always exhibited works, without giving any limits to the artists. I’ve always said that as long as it’s not for provocation, if there’s a commitment, a message, I don’t have a problem with it. I assume and I will fight for this idea.
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What was the impact of the Covid on the organization of this biennale which was to take place in 2020?
As with most institutions, the biennial has suffered. We had to postpone the dates several times, with the successive openings and closings of borders, to finally postpone to this year. Unfortunately, the spaces where it was to take place in 2020 were no longer free due to the change of dates and some artists were no longer available. Given these difficulties, the curator Christine Eyné, who is responsible for all the artistic part, then decided to do it in two stages. A first part now, which corresponds to a third of the works presented over the entire biennale, takes place from November 17 to December 17 and a second, larger part, next June.
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We are at the fifth edition of the International Biennale of Casablanca. How do you view its development?
It evolves a little timidly… I don’t know of a biennial in the world that takes place in a city, where the city is absent from this event. We are not at the first edition! I can understand when it’s the first edition. We are in the fifth edition. We hire quality curators like Christine Eyné, we have quality artists.
We work to standards, which means that artists are supported with their plane ticket, their by the way, their right to show (exhibition right). Christine Eyné on arriving specified these standards which must be applied. We are part of an approach with ethics. Despite all this, our city is absent. In the end, we fight to have the budget, to carry out this event. The sinews of war remains money. The main partner remains the Maroc Premium Foundation. It has been in existence for about ten years and at the same time oversees the artists’ residence in Ifitry (about fifty kilometers from Essaouira), the contemporary art center, the BIC Project and the biennial, and manages on its own funds. For this edition, we have no Moroccan partner, our only partners are the French Institute which grants a small budget, Phileas which financed an artist, but also the Frac (Regional Fund for Contemporary Art) of the island of The meeting.
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What is the link between Ifry’s residency program and the Biennale?
The two projects are separate. The residence has its own much broader programming. We invite about fifty artists a year. However, when the curator realizes that an artist needs to produce his work on site, she will include it in the residency. This connection is important, because it gives the possibility of doing works on site, produced here in Morocco. Everyone knows the transport problems in Morocco. I also benefited from my experience in Dakar, especially in 2014, where I was the curator of the Morocco pavilion for the Dakar’Art biennial. I was able to see the difficulties in getting the works to come. Also, we give carte blanche to the artists of the biennale to come and produce here, in residence. We give them priority.
The residence is strategically located between Essaouira, positioned as a city of art, but where visitors remain a little disappointed, because there is not much art, and Safy, positioned as a city of ceramics. I myself was very disappointed with the parts offered, but the know-how is there. My idea was to create a new art hub between these two cities, which adopts quality standards around a set, not just a residence, but also a museum, and encourage artists to settle. The authorities did not follow.
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Despite the edits, you get little support. Why ?
I believe that there is a real problem here in Morocco: the lack of awareness of the importance of a biennial in a city like Casablanca, and above all, of all that it can bring to the city. The biennial is also placed under the patronage of Her Majesty. You can’t get any higher support. And yet, this is not passed on economically. Normally, Moroccan institutions should be aware when an event is supported by the king, it means that it is a quality event or at least important for our country. Institutions and companies should support it, but this is not the case. We don’t have a dirham! It’s incomprehensible not to have support. Unless people don’t want a biennial in Casa or in Morocco.
From an ethical point of view, we cannot be blamed for anything. We’re not doing anything provocative, we can talk about engaging artists, raising awareness about certain issues. It’s not negative, we don’t see it as a criticism, but as a reflection to support our country to make it evolve and progress, as other countries have done.
Other biennials have disappeared, such as those of Marrakech and Rabat. But what I can say: it’s a biennial that will stay. We can function without partners, we will continue to fight at our level and according to our means. Even if we remain a small biennale, it does not matter, the objective is to continue.
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