The artists breaking new ground in Marrakesh’s industrial quarter

Ashleigh Kane, Dazed, July 6, 2022
Photographer Hassan Hajjaj collaborates with Marjana Jaidi’s Mbari House to forge the Red City’s creative future
 

Away from the frenetic hustle and bustle of Marrakesh’s Medina, energy is bubbling among the Red City. Located about 5km from the city’s centre, is Sidi Ghanem, an industrial quarter where artisans and creatives are breaking new ground by opening boutiques, restaurants, galleries, and more.

Moroccan photographer Hassan Hajjaj – famed for his colourful portraits capturing the spirit of the Moroccan people and their culture – is one of them. “Fifteen years ago, Sidi Ghanem was considered outside of Marrakech,” Hajjaj says. Most areas like this become east London, Downtown LA – they become the main areas. I felt this could have that. I could see the blueprint, and there’s already a furniture shop, some restaurants – so, it’s the beginning.”

Hajjaj’s Riad Yima – a boutique, tea room, and gallery located amid the labyrinth-like streets of the Medina – has long been a must-visit when traipsing through the city (Hajjaj also has an outpost in Shoreditch, London, called Larache Shop). But Jajjah (Hajjaj backwards) expands his vision, not just in scale but in ambition. 

“I don’t want it to be about me, it’s from me to the people” – Hassan Hajjaj

Like Riad Yima and Larache Shop, Jajjah has been designed as a living artwork by Hajjaj himself – whose bright colours, geometric patterned backdrops, and the food tins as borders that distinguish his photographs – jump from his frames into real life. Aside from Jajjah’s aesthetics, it’s a place to eat – tagine on Friday is a city-wide custom – to listen to live music, take in, or buy, the work of local artists and photographers, and drink tea. In fact, Hajjaj explains, it was a cup of tea where this all started.

“My partner (with Jajjah) is Amine El Baroudi, a tea maker for Harrods and Fortnum & Mason. He’s probably one of the top tea manufacturers around the globe. He’s an art collector, and I’d met him at some openings,” Hajjaj says. “I knew he was packaging the (tea) cans in a factory, and I asked him if it was possible to design my own because I use them for my frames in my work. So I came, and we met. Then one day, he asked if I wanted to do a tea brand. I thought he was joking. But, he kept pushing it, so I wondered what I could bring to the table.”

Hajjaj started to brew his own tea brand, and, alongside the leaves, blended in the elements of culture now found in Jajjah’s four corners, specifically music and art. “I added a QR code on the (tea) packaging, so you can listen to music while you have tea, and there are Moroccan photographers’ works on the packaging,” says Hajjaj. The mint tea I purchase features a pastel-hued photograph by young Moroccan photographer Ismail Zaidy on the reverse side of its packaging – which also hangs amongst an expanded series on Jajjah’s nearby walls.

In the gallery space, Hasnae El Ouraga’s Fragments of an Anonymous Memory is exhibited, a stark exhibition of black-and-white images that merge time and space to tell a story of family estrangement. Hajjaj has already lined up future shows with Moroccan artists and photographers Yassine Alaoui Ismaili and Karim Chater.

For Jajjah’s official launch – on hold for two years due to the impact and restrictions of Covid – Hajjaj partnered with Marjana Jaidi’s Oasis Festival and its conceptual stage, Mbari House. Since 2015, Oasis Festival has steadily become a sanctuary for underground electronic music lovers and is set to return in September after a two-year hiatus to Dakhla, a slice of paradise south of Marrakesh between the Atlantic and the Sahara.

The festival’s Mbari House is “a pop-up concept space that aims to create a cultural meeting point between Morocco, Africa, and the world”. It gives Jaidi and her team more fluidity, the ability to be nimble and shapeshift into new spaces and collaborations that don’t need a major operation. In this case, it’s a curated afternoon of talks, followed by an evening of high-energy performances at Jajjah by local rappers, many of who have gone global, like ElGrandeToto, Dizzy DROS, and Draganov, on a stage designed by Hajjaj.  (...)