Fez: A fine crafts exhibition celebrates Morocco’s dialogues with Africa
A fine crafts exhibition highlighting Moroccan craftsmanship and its deep African affinities was inaugurated on Monday in the iconic spaces of the Fez medina.
Entitled “Confluence: shared gestures and heritages”, this event is being held at Hri Boutouil, which hosts the crafts exhibition, and Souk Semmarine, the venue of a caftan fashion show showcasing Moroccan artisanal creativity.
This event, launched as part of the 9th edition of the National Handicrafts Week, held under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, takes place in the context of the Africa Cup of Nations, which several Moroccan cities are hosting, including Fez.
The exhibition offers a sensitive look at craftsmanship as a living geography, shaped by caravan routes, trans Saharan exchanges and gestures passed down over centuries, linking historic Moroccan cities to major African centers, in a space of creation and encounters beyond borders.
Structured around materials including metal, leather, wood, earth and textiles, the exhibition trail highlights correspondences of forms, techniques and symbols, without erasing regional specificities, thus revealing shared heritages and a continuity between tradition and contemporary creation.
On the sidelines of the exhibition opening, in the presence of the Wali of the Fez Meknes region, Khalid Aït Taleb, Abderrahim Belkhayat, regional director of handicrafts, told MAP that this initiative aims to strengthen the promotion of Moroccan craftsmanship through awareness and outreach actions, with the participation of crafts actors from across the continent.
He specified that these activities notably include exhibitions installed in Fez’s main Fan Zone, as well as in several emblematic spaces of the city, in addition to a fashion show dedicated to the Moroccan caftan, coinciding with its recent inscription as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
For her part, Moumina El Khayati, curator of the exhibition, noted that “Confluence” was designed to allow visitors, both Moroccan and foreign, to find echoes of their own traditions in the forms, materials and symbols of Moroccan craftsmanship.
She explained that the exhibition highlights, alongside the caftan through creations by Moroccan fashion designers, everyday objects, traditional jewelry and musical instruments, illustrating African cultural resonances and the ancient dialogue between the continent’s artisanal practices.
For his part, Moad Kebdâni, representative of the Maison de l’Artisan, stressed that this program aims to strengthen African cultural ties and to introduce visitors and international media to the richness of the Kingdom’s heritage and creative resources.
He added that the exhibition also includes a thematic materials salon showcasing innovative pieces resulting from collaborations between designers and traditional artisans, offering a modern showcase of Moroccan craftsmanship rooted in tradition and open to creativity.
Taking part in this event, Driss Sakhi, a master coppersmith known in Fez as “Aâmi Driss”, expressed his pride in participating in an event held in a historic monument of the medina, a symbol of the city’s heritage.
He stated that the exhibited pieces are authentically from Fez, made entirely by hand without the use of machines, illustrating the living transmission of traditional know how and the central place of craftsmanship in the cultural identity of Fez.
The caftan fashion show held at Souk Semmarine provided a highlight of this cultural event by showcasing the innovative capacity of Moroccan clothing craftsmanship, through creations that combine respect for traditional dress with contemporary boldness.
The presented models revealed the creativity of Moroccan designers, who were able to reinterpret the caftan through renewed cuts, materials and embroidery, while preserving the soul and aesthetic codes of this emblematic garment of the national heritage.
Editorial team/le7tv
