Morocco’s Modern Art Showcased in Jerusalem Biennale Exhibition "Ziara"

According to Amit Hai Cohen, the exhibition’s curator, the participants will aim to show the modern face of Morocco, while taking advantage of the global "social network" of Moroccanness.

As part of the fourth Jerusalem Biennale, this exhibition, which started on October 12, will continue until November 28 at the YMCA building. It has brought together a wide variety of artists from various fields: painting, cinema, sculpture and fashion design. YouTubers and international stars of Moroccan cinema are also participating, reports the Haaretz website.

"Ziara: the ordinary Moroccan wisdom in Jerusalem". This is how the text accompanying this exhibition begins, also tracing the journey of several Israelis and, in particular, of Cohen, whose grandparents come from a Moroccan village.

"I went in search of history in the village of Tizgui, which is not on any map of the world. My great-grandfather, Shalom Amar, arrived in this country at the beginning of the 20th century. His house was the only one in the village, made of concrete, resting on the old brown Berber foundation," he recounts.

Cohen quickly managed to weave a link between Tizgui in Morocco and Netivot, a town in southern Israel, where he was born and raised. It was in Netivot that his grandfather and grandmother met, "motivated by faith and the seriousness of religion".

According to the exhibition curator, "the idea and practice known as Ziara are so present in Moroccan culture that many people in Morocco are still convinced that the Jews have only left to fulfill this "mitsva" and that they will soon return".

According to Cohen, Jerusalem, which is hosting this exhibition, is a "ziara" site for all religions. "We are essentially inviting artists to come for a ziara. But a ziara can also be for your mother, for your home, for the Moroccan neighborhood that was destroyed after 1967," he says, referring to the Mughrabi neighborhood that was located on the current site of the Western Wall plaza.

This exhibition has the merit of bringing together, for the first time, Jewish and Muslim artists from Israel, Morocco and around the world, who present their works side by side, "linked by their common Moroccan identity and its reflections in their art, their aesthetics and their worldview".