The 1-54 Art Fair in Marrakech is Reshaping Africa's Creative Geography

With its strategic location, multi-lingual culture, and welcoming atmosphere, the red city is the perfect melting pot for contemporary African artists and those who appreciate their craft.

El Glaoui smiling into the camera, wearing a black dress and standing in front of a rose-colored wall adorned with art pieces.

It was always Touria El Glaoui’s goal to bring 1-54 to the African continent.

Photo by Casey Kelbaugh.


It has been seven years since 1-54 founderTouria El Glaouilast caught up with OkayAfrica. In 2018, sheintroduced the first and only fair dedicated to contemporary African art to her home country of Morocco after successfully launching it in London and New York.

"Marrakech has been an extremely important journey," El Glaoui shares in a video call from the red city where she is visiting the fair's bustling site just a few days before its 2025 edition. "The artists are extremely proud to be showing on their own continent. Even if they're showing in international exhibitions, they want to go back and be a part of this discourse that is happening on the continent."

El Glaoui wearing a white blazer and speaking to an AFP reporter in front of a red wall adorned with several red and golden art pieces.

1-54 has become Marrakech's most important annual art event, bringing together artists, galleries, and collectors from all over the world.

Photo courtesy of Mohamed Lakhdar.

This was not necessarily the case when El Glaoui pitched the idea to host 1-54 in Marrakech. Many established North African artists were used to working in a system centering around the West and felt that once they had made it abroad, coming back home would be a regression in their career.

"It was a bit of work engaging and explaining," she says. "It was also about questioning how [an African art fair] would impact artists who had worked all their life not to be pigeonholed by their color or geography. They felt it could be limiting to what they wanted to be."

An emerging positive image of Africa as the heart of creativity and growth helped position the African market to be built and pursued, gradually changing artists' willingness to engage.

A North African woman is standing in front of a red mud wall, wearing a large blue textile with a white crescent printed upon it and indigenous Amazigh silver jewelry.

Sara Benabdallah, Labsa Lakbira, from Dry Land series (Large Format), 2024, Fujiflex print laminated on aluminum, 90 x 130 cm. Edition of 3+2 artist's proofs.

Photo courtesy of Nil Gallery.

El Glaoui chose Marrakech as 1-54's African home for practical reasons of accessibility, attractiveness, and logistics. Several passport holders do not need a visa to enter the country, there are no unusual mandatory vaccinations, and its location made it easy for international collectors to follow the fair to the continent — they do so happily, curious to discover artists producing there.

"Obviously, London and New York are very important in terms of visibility, but when it comes to Marrakech, the discussions within institutions are much deeper," says El Glaoui. "We have a larger group of collectors coming here with their patrons to explore art studios in Morocco and get a better feel of the art scene."

Two girls, one with curly afro hair, the other with two braids, standing at the beach, facing the sea, wearing blue and white checkered dresses and carrying bags of the same textile.

Malick Welli, Series Forgotten Paradise, 2024, Photography, 120 x 160 cm, Edition of 3 + 1 AP.

Photo courtesy of L'Atelier 21, Casablanca, Morocco.

El Glaoui was invested in breaking down prevalent distinctions separating North Africa from the rest of the continent. Still, she could not have foreseen how much the fair's location would help rebalance North Africa's presence in African conversations. "We have galleries from all over the place, but they are presenting more artists from North Africa when they are in Marrakech," she says.

Another unplanned factor that proved Marrakech to be the right choice is its linguistic versatility. While the New York edition attracts many African Americans and the London fair has strong ties to Caribbean and Afro Brazilian communities, Marrakech draws in large portions of francophone Africa and its diaspora.

"From a gallery standpoint, the fact that we're francophone, arabophone and anglophone allows them to decide how to transact," says El Glaoui. "So we attract a variety of partners and institutions."

A painting of two female figures, one blue and the other purple, and a white sheep and dove on a green and blue background.

Aly Ben Salem Untitled, Circa 1940, Gouache on paper, 55 x 75 cm.

Photo courtesy of Le Violon Bleu Gallery.

This year, El Glaoui looks forward to presenting an added angle on modern art, a period often challenging to deal with because artists' estates are not clearly organized. Working with Le Violon Bleu, a Tunisian gallery that represents modern artists from North Africa, and Loeve&Co, a Parisian gallery that works with Afro Caribbean modern artists, she appreciates the opportunity to showcase the generation that inspired many younger artists currently represented at 1-54. As part of this, El Glaoui shares that her father, the prolific painter Hassan El Glaoui, will be featured at a 1-54 fair for the first time.

She views her platform as the place emerging artists can first get their foot in the door, a stepping point towards bigger exhibitions. "We are extremely happy with the consistency of the evolution of the market with contemporary African art," she says. "We've seen a great appreciation over the last twelve years. 1-54 has played a huge role in giving more visibility to many artists not included in different international exhibitions."

For several established African artists, participating in 1-54 was their first milestone, leaving them with a strong emotional connection to the fair. "For any curated show by 1-54, they would always come back," says El Glaoui proudly. Similarly,galleries that expand onto the international stage oftentimes continue showcasing at 1-54 because it is an incubator that understands the context of their African artists in a way international fairs do not.

A woman is standing in front of two blue paintings that show abstract people in traditional clothes.

Besides the networking and the exposure, 1-54 is also a place where artists do not have to explain where they come from and can connect with collectors and art lovers over their craft.

Photo by Casey Kelbaugh.

Is El Glaoui planning to take 1-54 elsewhere on the continent? "For the moment, that remains wishful thinking," she says. "There are three very good art fairs, two in South Africa and one in Nigeria. I'm not here to compete with something people are working really hard on, and I wouldn't want to impose the 1-54 brand without being invited."

However, she is open to conceiving different formats she would like to bring to places like Senegal or Cote d'Ivoire. "We did something called1-54 Presents in Paris and Hong Kong where we presented an introduction of different artists," she says. "The mission is less about selling and more about educating."

1-54 Marrakech runs from Jan. 30 to Feb. 2, 2025. New York will follow closely from May 1 - 4, 2025.

A photo of three models wearing Dye Lab’s pieces.
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