1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair was founded in 2013 by Touria El Glaoui.
The name refers to the 54 countries of the African continent.
The first edition took place in London, establishing a dedicated international platform for contemporary African art at a time when the market and institutional recognition of artists from Africa and the diaspora were rapidly expanding.
The fair later developed editions in New York and Marrakech, creating a triangular structure between Europe, North America, and Africa.
1-54 Marrakech launched in 2018 and quickly became a key meeting point for artists, galleries, and collectors interested in North African and broader African contemporary art.
Marrakech provides a meaningful setting for this project.
The city has long been a point of encounter between Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.
Its cultural identity is shaped by craft, architecture, oral traditions, gardens, trade, music, tourism, design, and contemporary visual art.
In recent years, Marrakech has also strengthened its position as an art destination through museums, foundations, galleries, residencies, and cultural festivals.
1-54 Marrakech contributes to this ecosystem by bringing international attention to the city while also connecting Moroccan galleries and artists with a wider art-world audience.
Why Marrakech Matters
Marrakech is not simply a scenic backdrop for the fair.
The city changes the way the event is experienced.
Visitors move between La Mamounia, the medina, Guéliz, museum spaces, private foundations, gardens, restaurants, and historic architecture.
This creates a fair week that feels different from a conventional exhibition-centre event.
Moroccan contemporary art is also central to the experience.
Artists and galleries from Morocco have often played a strong role in the Marrakech edition, creating dialogue between local production and broader African and diasporic practices.
The city’s craft traditions are also relevant.
Textiles, metalwork, ceramics, woodwork, architecture, pigments, and decorative systems form part of Marrakech’s visual environment.
Contemporary artists may respond to these traditions directly, critically, or indirectly through material, form, and memory.
For visitors, the strongest experience is often found in the combination of fair booths, institutional exhibitions, and the city itself.
What Visitors Can Expect
Visitors to 1-54 Marrakech 2027 can expect a compact but high-level presentation of contemporary art.
The fair may include galleries from Morocco, Tunisia, Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, and other countries, as well as galleries based in Europe or North America that represent African and diasporic artists.
Painting is often a strong part of the fair, including figurative work, abstraction, portraiture, and mixed-media approaches.
Photography may appear through documentary, staged, archival, or conceptual practices.
Sculpture and installation can include wood, textile, metal, ceramics, found objects, and experimental materials.
Textile work is particularly important within many African and diasporic artistic practices, where fabric can carry histories of trade, migration, gender, labour, ceremony, and personal identity.
The fair may also include video, performance, and special projects that cannot be reduced to conventional booth displays.
The final artistic direction will depend on the 2027 gallery list and public programme.
Galleries, Artists and the Diaspora
The strength of 1-54 is that it does not treat African art as one uniform category.
The fair brings together artists working from different positions: those based on the continent, those living in diaspora communities, and those whose biographies connect several countries and cultural histories.
This matters because contemporary African art is not defined only by geography.
It can involve migration, memory, colonial histories, language, family archives, urban life, ecology, spirituality, political struggle, abstraction, digital culture, and material experimentation.
A Moroccan artist working in Marrakech, a Nigerian artist based in London, a South African artist represented by a European gallery, and a Caribbean artist exploring African diasporic memory may all appear within the same fair.
The visitor’s task is not to look for one single African style.
The real value is in seeing difference, contradiction, and complexity.
Public Programme
The public programme is one of the most important parts of 1-54 Marrakech.
Beyond gallery booths, the fair often includes talks, performances, screenings, conversations, institutional exhibitions, and special events across the city.
These programmes help visitors understand the context around the artworks.
Collectors can learn about artistic practice, market development, and institutional collecting.
Students and younger visitors can encounter artists, curators, and thinkers directly.
Cultural travellers can use the programme as a route through Marrakech’s contemporary art scene.
The final 2027 public programme has not yet been announced.
Visitors should check the schedule closer to March and plan their trip around both the fair and citywide exhibitions.
Some events may require registration or invitation, while others may be open to the public.
