Marrakech: a few trendy days in the heart of the red city

Today, the magic is still there. Admittedly, the famous Place Jemaâ el-Fna has become partly pedestrianised and is much more polished than it was not so long ago. But alongside the itinerant restaurants - four planks and three benches - perfectly aligned and beautifully lit at dusk, the traditional storytellers, fortune-tellers, wise monkey showmen and snake charmers continue to work to maintain this legendary chaos. If Marrakchis are to be believed, this festival, as daily as it is unique in the world, has no end in sight. It's there, veiled under the blue smoke of the braziers, stunned by the sound of the ghaïtas of the snake charmers, dizzy to the rhythm of the tom-toms of the descendants of African slaves. Jemaâ el-Fna is certainly alive and well, and will no doubt remain so for a long time to come.

 

After the rediscovery of the medina, and above all the wild charm of its riads, those little palaces with blind exterior walls and cool patios that for a while made the best pages of fashion magazines, it's now the turn of the former 'colonial' quarters to undergo their great transformation and set the tone for the red city. Guéliz and L'Hivernage, the districts that Lyautey, Commissioner General under the French Protectorate, commissioned the architect and town planner Henri Prost to build just over a century ago, with the aim of preserving the ochre-brown ochre-red colour of the buildings in the old town. "In Guéliz, we are at the heart of what will be the "Saint-Germain des Prés" of Marrakech in five to ten years' time, promises Khadija Korati, head of accommodation at the Bab Hotel, a brand new boutique hotel with a sleek, ultra-contemporary design. One by one, the old shops are giving up their leases to make way for art galleries and designer shops".

This is where people come to feel the pulse of the city, to meet up with the golden youth of Casablanca or Rabat on the trendy terraces of old, redesigned cafés. It's also the place to go if you're looking for a spacious, leafy urban resort that's close to the old medina. "For several years now, the Hivernage has been a neighbourhood on the move, says Karima Chakik, Sales and Marketing Director of the Pearl, the centre's latest luxury hotel, decorated by Jacques Garcia. We wanted our hotel to be close to everything, because the senior executives we welcome for meetings or seminars don't usually stay for more than three or four days. So they divide their time between work and sightseeing."

 

Marrakech owes much of its modern, trendy image, which runs counter to any Orientalist image, to Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé. "When I discovered Morocco, I realised that my own chromaticism was that of zouacs, zelliges, djellabas and caftans.said the couturier in the early 80s. I owe the boldness that has become my own to this country, to the violence of its chords, to the insolence of its mixtures, to the ardour of its inventions". Seduced, Yves Saint-Laurent never hesitated to associate his name with the Pearl of the South. Some thirty years ago, when he bought the Villa Majorelle, named after the painter who designed the famous blue house, he reminded the whole world that the city was more than just the red clay of the defensive walls of the Almohad city.

 

Even today, the intense blue of the splendid art deco villa reveals to the uninitiated a different Marrakech, one that is modern, innovative and daring. All around the building, pools of water, bougainvillea, fuchsia, royal palms, groups of cacti and plants laid out in clever brushwork create a singular picture that is echoed in many of the newly created landscaped gardens in the palm grove. "Marrakech has always been Morocco's leading tourist destination. But there was a new craze with Yves Saint Laurent, confirms Khalid Tijani, advisor to the Chairman of the Marrakech Regional Tourism Committee. A fad that has seen many opinion leaders follow in its wake, boosting the destination and giving it an image as a flagship, hybrid city".

 

This originality, which combines both tradition and modernity, can be seen everywhere. The most striking example is certainly La Mamounia, completely renovated in 2009.This legendary palace, which has stood for almost a century in the shadow of the sublime minaret of the Koutoubia, has been given a new lease of life thanks to the unmissable Jacques Garcia, who has applied his neo-Baroque style, adapted from the codes of the old palaces: woodwork and stucco, zelliges, drapery and subtle lines... More than a thousand craftsmen worked for three years to restore the former lustre of this meeting place for the international gentry between the wars.

 

Ah, the artisans of Marrakech! They too have made the city famous. And far beyond the borders of Morocco. By the 12th century, the Halmohad kasbah boasted a dozen palaces, gardens, a mosque, a hospital and a number of delicately crafted caravanserais. The city's influence extended from the borders of Senegal to the foot of the Spanish Pyrenees. In the 16th century, under the Saadians, the ElBadi palace, now sadly in a state of ruin, attracted all manner of covetousness with its marble imported from Italy, its gold from Sudan and its precious stones from China.

 

Experts in copperware, leatherwork, pottery, woodwork and a thousand other applied arts, the Marrakchis have preserved their highly sought-after know-how, generation after generation. You only have to look at the magnificent ceilings of the Ben Youssef medersa or the finish of the koubbas in the Saadian tombs to realise this; then compare them with the painted cedar structures and marble patios of the Bahia Palace, dating from the end of the 19th century, to see the same perfection. And finally, note the work carried out in the same vein on one of the city's new palaces, the Selman, decorated like the flats of a sultan. "As the owner of the Selman is Moroccan, he really wanted us to feel that we were in his country, with his culture, All the bricks used to build the walls have been hand-cut by craftsmen from all over the country. For the zelliges and tadelakt, it's the same: we've selected the best", says Antonia Maggiar, head of hotel coordination.

 

Heirs to a long and rich tradition of craftsmanship, a new generation of designers has emerged in Marrakech in recent years. Grouped together in some fifty showrooms in the Sidi Ghanem district, they are setting tomorrow's trends, innovating and exporting around the world. And that's the only reason visitors venture into this commercial area, where the charmless streets contrast with the clean layout of the designer boutiques. Their creations delight the owners of riads and villas in the region, and these artists have won numerous international awards, including Younes Duret, winner of the Saint-Étienne International Design Biennial, and Hicham El Madi, who is exhibiting at Harrods in London this winter. 

 

A diversion to one of these artisans is now part of most receptive programmes. "Expectations have changedsays Khalid Tijani. Today's delegates are not the same as they were ten years ago. They want something new, and are attracted by contemporary craftsmanship. Marrakech has become a multi-activity destination. Ten years ago, it was based on culture. Now it's multi-cultural. 

 

And art, let's say great art, is now doing its bit. In just a few years, more than twenty exhibition venues have sprung up, showcasing internationally acclaimed talent. It's hard not to discover this burgeoning inventiveness. Take a stroll through the heart of Guéliz to the Matisse Art Gallery, a pioneering exhibition space for the great names of contemporary art in Marrakech, including Mohamed Balili, Farid Belkahia, Salah Benjkane, Mahi Binebine, Omar Bouragba, Larbi Cherkaoui and Moulay Youssef Elkahfaï. Or the Noir sur Blanc gallery, a benchmark after just four years in existence. 

 

Artists' residences are even beginning to spring up outside the walls of the red city, like the one created by Mahi Binebine in 2003 on the Atlas road. At Tahanaout, in the heart of an island of greenery, the painter has set up his large studio and welcomes artists and art lovers in a bucolic setting. A dozen serene rooms surround a pool where you could happily stay for a whole season. A literary café - which can be made private - and a number of exhibition rooms complete this peace on earth, only slightly disturbed by the sizzling of tajines simmering in the adjoining kitchen. Simply delicious. 

 

In addition to the Berber Museum, which has just opened in the Villa Majorelle, Marrakech also boasts two flagship venues that can be privatised for MICE events. The Musée de Marrakech, housed in a splendid 19th-century palace in the heart of the medina, celebrates crafts and decorative art from different periods, while the Musée de la Palmeraie, founded by perfume designer Abderrazzak Benchaâbane and housed in an old adobe farmhouse, exhibits only contemporary artists. The works, some of them remarkable, are hung on the whitewashed walls of the old farm buildings, giving them an unexpected resonance. 

 

Marrakech's enthusiasm for the visual arts has been illustrated over the past two years by the creation of a biennial contemporary art event, the Marrakech Art Fair. Moroccan and European galleries, as well as institutions from the Arab world, come together towards the end of September for a series of artistic events programmed in the city's various cultural centres, artists' studios and private collectors. An international event which, following on from the film festival held in early December, bears witness to the desire to make Marrakech a trendy destination capable of competing with the biggest European cities. 

 

What remains is the art of living. This unique way in which the Moroccan people approach life, this true refinement which reaches all levels of society and which, sprinkled with a touch of oriental fatalism, gives everyday life a real lightness, not to say at times an almost plenitude. Everything is coded, staged, ritualised and sometimes even designed... From the exquisite tradition of mint tea served hot to the much more sensual tradition of hammam sessions in buildings that are often richly decorated. In the days of the sultans, a city was judged by the magnificence of its baths. Every district had its own, a sign of wealth and health. For a long time, the hammam was a place of free morals, uninhibited speech and initiation rites, but today it is synonymous with relaxation, a personal moment lived for oneself and for oneself alone. Luxury hotels are well aware of this, and are vying with each other in their inventiveness to offer scrubs with black soap and kessa glove, clay masks, argan oil treatments and massages. 

 

But well-being doesn't stop at the tadelakt walls of the hammams. Aromatherapists and top-of-the-range beauty shops flourish even in the narrow streets of the dessouks. This know-how has the luxury of being exported to the world's greatest capitals. "There are a thousand and one reasons to choose Marrakech as your MICE destination, sums up Khalid Tijani. The climate, the change of scenery close to Europe, the hotel capacity, many years of experience in tourism, the heritage, the many possibilities for post and pre-conference excursions, the gastronomy... And perhaps, above all, the hospitality of its people."