CINEMAS OF MOROCCO
François Beaurain
SOLO SHOW
30 DECEMBER – 30 JANUARY 2023
If many voices have been raised in recent years to denounce the disappearance of cinemas in Morocco, they are still largely unknown. Following the publication of the book Cinemas of Morocco, here is a proposal for an exhibition intended to help a wide audience discover the diversity and richness of the Kingdom’s cinemas.
A selection of large-format fine-art prints will allow visitors to admire the most beautiful rooms in the Kingdom.
In addition to the photographs, the exhibition is punctuated by testimonials and anecdotes about the rooms.
The exhibition presented by the CDA Gallery ,traces the epic of the cinemas of Morocco from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. Both buildings and meeting places between film and its audience, cinemas represent a heritage of multiple dimensions that offer a unique opportunity to bring together history, cinema, and architecture. Unlike previous projects on cinemas that focus on their disappearance, this exhibition is conceived as a starting point, an invitation to better understand this heritage and to question its future.
THE BOOK :
Cinemas of Morocco is first and foremost a book. The book, published by La Croisée des Chemins at the end of 2021, is an invitation to discover the richness of an unknown and threatened heritage. This seminal work is richly illustrated with more than 400 photographs and allows the reader to discover some sixty rooms from all periods and spread throughout the territory. For each room, the book provides, in addition to photos, basic information (year of construction, address, capacity, architect), then a short description of the building and its history. Where appropriate, documents from this period (articles, photos, postcards) are reproduced.
The book is also doubled by a historical work that traces the epic of Morocco’s movie theaters. This work, the first of its kind, allows to put in parallel the history of Morocco, Moroccan cinema, and movie theaters.
Finally, the book also pays tribute to the last men and women who fight to keep these cinemas alive. Portraits and interviews punctuate the book and make it more alive.
