Paris — Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Meryem proceeded on Tuesday in Paris to the launch of the exhibition “Medieval Morocco: An Empire from Africa to Spain”, organized by the Louvre Museum in partnership with the National Foundation for Museums and held under the patronage of HM King Mohammed VI and French president François Hollande.
In attendance were the president of Louvre Museum Jean Luc Martinez, the Moroccan minister of culture Mohamed Amine Sbihi, Morocco’s ambassador to France Chakib Benmoussa, Morocco’s ambassador to the UNESCO Zouhour Alaoui and The palace’s spokesperson and Morocco’s historiographer Abdelhak Mrini
After delivering her speech, HRH Princess Lalla Meryem, accompanied by several figures, took the time to visit the different stands of the exhibition.
This travelling exhibition will be open to the public from Oct. 17, 2014 to Jan. 19, 2015 at the Louvre Museum, and at the Rabat Mohammed VI Museum from March 2 to June 1, 2015. This remarkable event is a means to promote culture as inherent to development, knowledge sharing and bringing people and nations closer together.
It features over 300 works of art reflecting what Morocco has achieved during previous dynasties, notably the Almoravid, Almohad and Marinid dynasties in the fields of architecture, pottery, textile, calligraphy and books. The event showcases cientific and technical inventions and their impact on European Renaissance.
This event is held at the same time as the Contemporary Morocco Exhibition which was inaugurated, on the same day, at the Arab World Institute by HRH Princess Lalla Meryem and French President François Hollande.
The Medieval Morocco exhibition “displays very symbolic items as minbars (where the preacher stands) and bell lamps of the Al Qarawiyyin mosque which were lent by the Kingdom”.
HRH Princess Lalla Meryem congratulated the artists whose works were selected and who will be, throughout the next few months, the ambassadors of modern and contemporary art in Morocco.
Her Royal Highness further stressed that this exibition and that of the “Medieval Morocco” at the Louvre Museum, are among the most important dedicated to the artistic and cultural scene from a foreign country, adding that ” they will allow a fruitful dialectic, linking the medieval to the contemporary, linking the Morocco of our ancestors and that of our youth, through the guise of a clear civilizational continuity. »
For its part, the French president said that the presence of HRH Princess Lalla Meryem at the inauguration of the exhibition testifies of the links of friendship between Morocco and France, welcoming in this regard the initiatives of His Majesty King Mohammed VI for the promotion of arts and culture.
