Cape Town versus Marrakech: Twin art capitals?

The contemporary African art scene kicks off early in the year with art fairs held in two major art capitals of Africa. - Marrakech and Cape Town with the 1-54 Marrakech taking place at the end of January and the Investec Cape Town Art Fair in February.
To some degree, these two African art capitals are mirrors of each other, as they have much in common. They are both tourist destinations and as a result, the art markets in both cities largely rely on foreign visitors to support their burgeoning gallery scenes. Due to their appeal to tourists, these cities have become important institutional hubs for the art. Cape Town and Marrakech boast more private art foundations than those in Joburg and Casablanca, the economic hubs. Art buyers in the latter cities, therefore tend to be more local. In fact, some dealers in Casablanca believe the more serious art collectors gravitate towards that city, where more local art buyers are concentrated - hence the country's major auction house Compagnie Marocaine des Oeuvres et Objets d'Art (CMOOA) is located in that city.

These are some of the findings in Corrigall & Co's latest report, 2024 African Art Ecosystems, which looks into changes in the titular ecosystems in Joburg, Cape Town, Lagos, Abuja, Marrakech and Casablanca during and after Covid-19 - 2019 to 2024. One of the major findings of this report is that art ecosystems, in particular the commercial gallery segment, expanded substantially in each of these cities during and after Covid-19. In gauging, how globalised the art markets in these cities are, a study of art fair participation beyond local borders is included.
It was found that "more galleries in Cape Town participate in art fairs beyond South Africa's borders. This might imply that the local buying market in Cape Town can't sustain or propel the growth of larger art businesses or perhaps more galleries in this city have the resources to do so. Nevertheless, galleries that sell higher-priced works by more established artists are more likely to sell internationally."
Cape Town's commercial art segment has grown more than Joburg's (See graph). "This may align with frequent reports (Financial Mail, 2023) in the press of a ‘semi-migration’ - a trend that COVID-19 pandemic precipitated as it encouraged people to work remotely and then, in the post-pandemic context, to hybrid-work opportunities."
The report advances several key points, including the positive effects of digitising the art market during the pandemic, the high number of tourists in Cape Town when in-person events resumed, and the growth of the Investec Cape Town Art Fair.
In Marrakech, it was found that more art platforms were established during and after the pandemic than in Casablanca.
"There may be a multitude of reasons for this. One likely driver could be the rise in tourist numbers to the Red City. Between 2019 and 2023 it was reported (Morocco World News, 2023) that there was a 63% increase. Perhaps to meet this growing need it was recorded that investment in the tourism industry had increased substantially.

1-54 Marrakech was cited by many dealers as playing a role in the growth of the art scene in this city. Some of the new galleries in this city originate in Casablanca and have expanded to Marrakech.
"The international character of this fair aligns with Marrakech's status as a tourist hub. Some view it as filling the gap left by the now-defunct Marrakech Biennale, as this edition of the 1-54 fair has galvanised many projects, exhibitions and other events that are timed to coincide and complement it, generating a sort of city-wide string of events during the fair week."
Art fairs do more than connect new buyers with art dealers; they serve as a powerful catalyst that generates excitement and events related to various art platforms leading up to or during the fair.
Richard Mudariki's Cape Town project space Arthare, one of the new commercial spaces to open in that city, is a case study in the report and reveals how Covid-19Â and the digitisation of the art market was the spark for this art business.
Hicham Daoudi founder of Comptoir des Mines Galerie (CMG) in Marrakech, shared the story of how this gallery was established in 2016 and the role of art fairs in its development from being largely focussed on Moroccan artists to embracing those from the Global South.
-African Art Ecosystems sells for R450.
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