MACAAL: Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden

Overview

MACAAL — the Musée d'Art Contemporain Africain Al Maaden — is Marrakech's window onto the contemporary art of the whole African continent. A private, non-profit museum set in the landscaped Al Maaden district southeast of the city, it champions living African artists through a growing permanent collection, ambitious temporary exhibitions and an outdoor sculpture garden. For anyone wanting a modern, thoughtful counterpoint to the historic medina, it's a rewarding trip.

The museum was founded by the Lazraq family, prominent Moroccan collectors and developers, to share their decades-long collection of African and Moroccan art with the public, and it opened in its current form in the late 2010s. Its mission is explicitly pan-African: to spotlight the diversity and vitality of contemporary creation across the continent and its diaspora, at a time when African artists are increasingly central to the global art conversation.

Inside, changing exhibitions draw on the permanent holdings and on loans to present painting, photography, sculpture, installation and mixed media by established and emerging names from across Africa. The displays are professionally curated and often thematic, and the building's clean, light-filled galleries give the work room to breathe — a very different atmosphere from the ornate, historic interiors elsewhere in the city.

MACAAL sits within the Al Maaden resort and golf development southeast of Marrakech, a short drive from the centre, and includes an outdoor sculpture park set in the grounds. Because it's out of town it takes a little planning — a taxi or arranged transport is easiest — but it pairs well with lunch in the district, and it offers something genuinely rare in the region: a serious, contemporary, African-focused art experience.