Toni Maraini is a poet, writer, art historian, and anthropologist, as well as a specialist in North African visual arts, popular arts, and literature. She lived in Morocco from 1964 to 1986, and she contributed to the emergence of a postcolonial artistic avant-garde there. At the Casablanca Art School, she established the first modern art history course in Morocco and, alongside Farid Belkahia, Mohamed Melehi, Mohammed Chabâa, and Bert Flint, was heavily involved in the school’s pedagogic reform. She also played an active part in publications such as Souffles, Maghreb Art, and Intégral. Maraini played a crucial role in establishing connections among artists in the Arab and Mediterranean regions, extending beyond the 1970s. Emblematic of her cosmopolitan and cross-cultural oeuvre, her numerous publications include Dernier thé à Marrakech (1994), La Lettre de Bénarès (2007), and Écrits sur l’art (2014).
The annual Asilah Cultural Moussem, an international festival held in northern Morocco, was cofounded in 1978 by Mohamed Benaïssa and Mohamed Melehi in collaboration with Toni Maraini and Al Muhit Cultural Association. It served as a significant postcolonial cultural platform, involving activists from the Casablanca Art School and artists from Africa, the Arab world, Asia,…
