1-54 Marrakech 2026 turns city into an art world center

On the facade of La Galerie 38 in Marrakech is a colourful six-meter-high wooden installation by Ghizlane Agzenaï. ‘The Portal’, as the self-taught Moroccan artist calls it, leads visitors into the gallery’s exhibition space in the Moroccan city for Agzenaï’s solo show Dimension 2112: The Station.

Ghizlane Agzenaï' stands in front of ' The Portal,' at La Galerie 38 Marrakech. Image courtesy La Galerie 38 and the artist.

The exhibition opened on 5 February as part of Gallery Night, an exploration of selected galleries and art spaces in the Gueliz neighbourhood, an initiative by the organisers of 1-54 Marrakech 2026.

“I am really happy that we got to do the opening during 1-54 because for me personally, it’s like an annual rendezvous to meet artists, to meet people from the art world that maybe we can’t meet every day in Morocco,” Agzenaï told Wallpaper* after a tour of the exhibition. “It’s a fair that has really grown over the years in a very, very positive way. We wanted to have as many people as possible to experience ‘Dimension 2112 so for me and the gallery, it was the perfect moment to do the opening.” (2112 is a nod to the artist’s birthday on 21 December.)

Dimension 2112: The Station on view through 14 March is the second iteration of the artist’s 2023 Dimension 2112: Genesis which Agzenaï describes as a parallel world where people experience joy, positive energy and optimism in a full immersive and colourful setting featuring a mix of work on canvas and wood, that the artist calls ‘totems.’ The exhibition also includes a video installation Agzenaï made in collaboration with Vancouver-based digital artist Rakan Ghresi.

A portrait of Ghizlane Agzenaï in front of her work ©Anonymshot. Courtesy La Galerie 38.

Agzenaï’s show was one of several that opened during 1-54 Marrakech 2026, which welcomed VIPs and the press on the morning of 5 February at the Iconic La Mamounia. A large number of people including collectors, artists, and curators, converged at the luxury hotel for the seventh edition in the city for the fair which spotlights artists and art from Africa and its diaspora.

“I think it’s nice to see the enthusiasm,” Touria El Glaoui, founding director of the fair told Wallpaper* in the foyer of La Mamounia hours after the first day opening. El Glaoui noted that the number of Moroccans attending the fair is growing, with some travelling from Casablanca, Tangier, and Rabat, which she called “wonderful.”

This year’s edition hosted 22 galleries mainly from around Africa and the rest of world including Gallery 1957 (London and Accra), space Un (Tokyo), ELLEPHANT (Montreal), AA Gallery (Casablanca), L’Atelier 21 (Casablanca), FILAFRIQUES (Geneva and Abidjan), LouiSimone Guirandou Gallery (Abidjan), The Art Fair (Luanda), and Nil Gallery (Paris) showing work by about 70 established and emerging artists. The booth and aisles inside the main exhibition spaces were filled with people engaging with works spanning photography, painting, sculpture, and ceramics, tapestries, speaking with representatives of the galleries and other guests.

1-54 Marrakech 2026. Courtesy Mohamed Lakhdar

Showing at 1-54 Marrakech is “really important,” said Canelle Hamon-Gillet, director of La Galerie 38 Marrakech, describing the fair as a meeting point for collectors who are looking to discover Morocco’s art scene, and generally artists from across Africa. For this edition, the gallery presented an all-female Moroccan artists group show titled Think Out of The Blue featuring the work of Ines-Noor Chaqroun, Meriam Benkirane, Yacout Hamdouch, and Nissrine Seffar.

(The gallery also opened the third chapter of its 15th anniversary group show ‘The Manifesto of Possibilities’ featuring work by artists including Agzenaï, Benkirane, Soly Cissé, Mohamed Hamidi, Hamdouch, Jems Koko Bi, Abdoulaye Konaté, and Dominique Zinkpè on the 1-54 Marrakech 2026 Gallery Night in a second exhibition space next door.)

Cécile Fakhoury, founder of the eponymous gallery, echoed Hamon-Gillet’s sentiments about the fair’s exceeding influence saying “it’s of course important” to be a part of the event, describing it as “building bridges” between galleries, collectors, and countries and also aiding in her goal of helping build strong art scenes across West Africa. At the fair, the gallery with spaces in Abidjan, Dakar, and Paris presented work by Rachel Marsil (Senegal and France), Roméo Mivekannin (Benin), Sadikou Oukepdjo (Togo), Ouattara Watts (Ivory Coast & America), Carl-Edouard Keïta (Ivory Coast), and Elladj Lincy Deloumeaux (Guadeloupe & France) The latter’s first solo show in Morocco also opened during 1-54 Marrakech 2026 at the Monde des Arts de la Parure, following a residence in Marrakech, which is a collaboration between Fakhoury’s gallery and Casablanca and Marrakech based Loft Art Gallery.

Outside of the fairgrounds and the La Mamounia hotel halls, several activations were held throughout the city at residencies, museums, hotels, artist studio visits and art spaces including at Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech showing work by legendary photographer David Seidner and the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL) which is hosting new shows including Statues Also Breathe, a project by French artist Prune Nourry in collaboration with the Department of Fine Arts and Applied Arts at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria. Supported by Catharsis Arts Foundation, the work featuring 108 clay figures spotlights the girls still missing from the 276 then school girls who were abducted by militant group Boko Haram in Chibok, Nigeria in 2014, and was done in association with women porters and families of the girls.

Nil Gallery Booth at 1-54 Marrakech 2026. Image courtesy Nil Gallery.

There were guided tours of From Morocco With Love at Es Saadi Marrakech, an exhibition of major modern and contemporary Moroccan art collected by the resort's owner, Elisabeth Bauchet-Bouhlal, and her late husband, Jamil Bouhlal, tracing Moroccan art from the post-independence era to the present. Jnane Rumi also hosted a group exhibition, The Garden of Encounters, curated by Moroccan artist Samy Snoussi, that transformed the hotel’s gardens into an art space displaying work by Moroccan and international artists as part of 1-54 Marrakech 2026’s programming.

“I do feel this link between [1-54 Marrakech] and the city is getting stronger,” said El Glaoui, the 1-54 Contemporary African Art fair founder about the fair’s relationship with galleries, museums, residencies, organisations, foundations, hotels and art spaces based in the city. “There’s definitely an understanding of what we are doing for the city, what the city is doing for the fair and how we are collaborating on programs that make the fair very special.”

An edited version of this report appears on Wallpaper*.

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