Book Presentation: "Women and Art in the Maghreb"
The auditorium of the Bardo Museum will host the presentation of the book "Women and Art in the Maghreb" (Le Fennec Editions, Morocco, 2025) on November 15. The book was conceived under the direction of Nadia Sabri (Director of the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rabat) and Rachida Triki (Philosopher, Art Critic, and Academic, Tunisia).
Background
The project was designed and implemented following a conference held in Rabat in September 2021, organized by the International Association of Art Critics (Aica International) and its Moroccan section, chaired by Nadia Sabri, as part of the UNESCO participation project (2020-2021) to promote women in Africa.
The Book
"Women and Art in the Maghreb" is the result of a two-day conference held at the Faculty of Educational Sciences of Mohammed V University in Rabat, which brought together a wide range of actors from the artistic and intellectual world, including artists, critics, curators, directors of art centers and museums, journalists, and academics. The conference aimed to answer the question: what place do women occupy in the art world in the Maghreb?
Contributions
The book is the result of three years of work and research, highlighting the major players in the artistic scene in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. Many voices from the art world and thought have contributed to the book, including:
- Brahim Alaoui
- Myriam Amroun (Rhizome)
- Emma Ben Yedder (Espace Central)
- Nouha Ben Yebdri (Mahal Art Space)
- Sayda Ben Zineb (Journalist)
- Malika Dorbani
- Anissa Bouayed
- Fatima Chafaa
- Maroua Cherkaoui
- Najet Dhahbi
- Rita Ghita El Khayat
- El Meya
- Safaa Erruas
- Wafa Gabsi (Archivart)
- Jacques Leenhardt
- Amina Menia
- Elisabeth Piskernik (Le Cube)
- Meryem Sebti (Diptyk)
- Wassyla Tamzali (Les Ateliers Sauvages)
- Khadija Tnana
- Farid Zahi
- Najah Zarbout
Accessibility
The book's corpus deliberately moves away from the academic format of conference proceedings, often limited to a restricted university audience. As its initiators point out, this editorial project aims to be accessible and open to a wide readership.
Structure
The book is prefaced and introduced by Nadia Sabri and Rachida Triki and is divided into four main chapters, each exploring an essential dimension of female creation in the Maghreb:
- Female voices in art criticism
- Words of women artists
- Writings of art histories in the Maghreb
- Women founders of art spaces
The book is available at the Institute of the Arab World, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Palais de Tokyo. It was previously presented at the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rabat in June. The event is organized under the patronage of the Wallonia-Brussels Delegation in Tunisia.
