Higher Atlas/Au-delà de l’Atlas
The Marrakech Biennale [4] in Context

Edited by Carson Chan and Nadim Samman

With texts by Carson Chan, Anthony Gardner, Kerryn Greenberg, Gideon Lewis-Kraus, Beral Madra, Simon Njami, Katarzyna Pieprzak, Alice Planel, Holiday Powers, Véronique Rieffel, Nadim Samman, and Jessica Winegar

Higher Atlas: The Marrakech Biennale in Context [4] brings together a collection of texts that dilates on the social and historical context, history, and contemporary reality of exhibition making in North Africa and in particular, Morocco. For Chan and Samman, the exhibition is the primary locus of artistic information; firsthand experience of the work is the best way to understand it. The catalogue, published in English and French, with an Arabic online edition to follow, is intended to provide a context for the exhibition within preexisting and future frameworks for understanding some of the considerations that went into this edition of the Marrakech Biennale.

Further contributions by جماعة, Younes Baba-Ali, Barkow Liebinger Architects, Centre des Arts Contemporains Marrakech, Joe Clark, CocoRosie, Hassan Darsi, Aleksandra Domanović, Sophie Erlund, Tue Greenfort, Eva Grubinger, Hadley + Maxwell, Elín Hansdóttir, Ethan Hayes-Chute, Roger Hiorns, Katia Kameli, Felix Kiessling, Faouzi Laatiris, Juliana Cerqueira Leite, Megumi Matsubara, Jürgen Mayer H., Christopher Mayo, Jon Nash, Karthik Pandian, Finnbogi Pétursson, Alexander Ponomarev, Luca Pozzi, Katarzyna Przezwańska, Florian & Michael Quistrebert, Andrew Ranville, Anri Sala, Alex Schweder La & Khadija Carroll La, Matthew Stone & Phoebe Collings-James, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Sinta Werner, Leung Chi Wo

Design by John McCusker and Sara Hartman

Publishing house: Sternberg Press

The catalog is available via Amazon.

Download texts as PDFs

Context Matters: Notes Toward the 4th Marrakech Biennale / Questions de contexte: Notes pour la 4e Biennale de Marrakech
Holiday Powers

The Shifting Site / Le site itinérant
Nadim Samman

Let Me Entertain You: A Consideration of Context and Audience in Curating the 4th Marrakech Biennale / Laissez-moi vous divertir: questions de contexte et de public dans l’organisation curatoriale de la 4e biennale de Marrakech
Carson Chan

Biennales on the Edge, or, a View of Biennales From Southern Perspectives / Biennales sur le fil, ou, vue des biennales selon les perspectives du Sud
Antony Gardner

Africa North, South, and in Between / Afrique Nord, Sud et entre Deux
Jessica Winegar & Katarzyna Pieprzak

Global Exhibitions and National Contexts: Case Study Istanbul / Les Exposition Mondiales dans un Contexte National: en reference Istanbul
Beral Madra

Marrakech
Gideon Lewis–Kraus

Traveling Back to Ourselves: The Maghreb as an Art Destination / Retournons vers nos racines: le Maghreb comme destination d’art
Alice Planel

“Contemporary Arab Art”: Esthetic Renaissance or Neo-Oriental Avatar? / « L’art contemporain arabe »: Renaissance esthétique ou avatar néo-orientaliste?
Véronique Rieffel

The City in the Blue Day / La Cité dans le Jour Bleu
Simon Njami

The City as Site: Building an Audience for Contemporary Art in Africa / La ville en tant que site: création d’un public pour l’art contemporain en Afrique
Kerryn Greenberg

Taking Moroccan Art to the Streets: Ephemeral Engagement and Sustained Community Practices / Amener l’art marocain dans la rue: engagements éphémères et implications des communautés locales
Katarzyna Pieprzak