LUCIA KOCH AT THE 1ST BIENNALE OF CONTEMPORARY ART IN RABAT

September 24, 2019

Congratulations to Lucia Koch on her participation in the 1st Biennale of Contemporary Art in Rabat, Morocco. In Rabat, as a continuation of the project started at the Lyon Biennale 2011, the artist is installing three monumental billboards in the public space. The photographs of the interior of cardboard boxes, amplified to the point of transfiguring them, then become virtual spaces, imaginary extensions of the city.

The biennial’s curator, the French-Algerian philosopher, art historian, and museum director Abdelkader Damani, decided to include only female artists in the central exhibition, which he has titled “An Instant Before the World,” in order to elevate voices that have been silenced in the conventional narrative of art history. “Equality of men and women is a chief concern of humanity that we should be engaged with,” Damani says. “If you want to rewrite the history of art, you need to create new conditions for how you select the artists, because if you use the same protocol that has been done from the 19th century to now, you are going to end up with about 90 percent of the selected artists being male, and working in English, French, or Spanish.”

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Rabat already attracts international visitors. The biennale will make the most of Rabat’s historic sites, including the Rottembourg Fort, as well as new spaces such as the Mohammad VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.

The Rabat Biennale runs from September 24 through December 18 at various venues in Rabat, Morocco.