Adventures with Julia

June 16, 2019

Mark listens to the docents introduce us to the museum

After the late night party, we were all slow getting going in the morning.  It was 10:30 before we were in the van and headed to  the Museum of African Contemporary Art.  It was no ordinary museum.  It was not large, but it was spectacular in its content and purpose.  Even Mark hung around to learn the meaning of each piece.  Here is a sampling of the art we experienced.

Acrylic on canvas,” Eyram, Yellow is the Color of Water”, Jeremiah Quarshie (Ghana)2015.About women’s need for water and the difficulties of carrying it. This is the only painted image in the exhibition.

First of all, there was only one piece that was painted, a western mode of art not culturally African.  The rest of the collection was made up of artifacts found in the local culture and turned into eclectic, meaningful and artful works that required thought to understand the intent.  I am including several pieces so you can get a sense of the place for yourself.  Nezha had arranged for us to have the museum to ourselves.  The two head docents shared their knowledge and insights with us at each piece.  That alone made the tour a special experience.

A concrete and steel sculpture that reads, in Arabic, “Liberty.” However, the word is in concrete nailed to the wall with a steel plate over the middle of it. The message is that Liberty has not become free. I found this piece very visceral.

Large-scale sculpture of fake acrylic nails by Frances Goodman. Subtle subversion of stereotypes that continue to surround women and their interest in the surface presentation of self. I found the image both appealing and intense.

Found objects like used toothbrushes and discarded soap dispenser caps make this an interesting commentary on how people use and discard things.

For me, the artists presented, collectively, a feeling of HOPE.  They are not looking to the past, but working to effect change, positive change now, for the future.  I think everyone in our group came away feeling moved.

Around the corner from the museum is the golf course, where  lunch was waiting.

Then we were off to lunch at the nearby golf course.  It was a pretty setting and a super salad came without us having to order.  It was perfect for everyone at our table and we thought we were done, when a beef and chicken tagine arrived.  Suddenly, it was way too much food, even if it was tasty.  I stopped.

We all agreed to a short visit to the medina to spend some money.  Mark and I wandered around reminiscing about our last visit here 25+ years ago.  Nothing seemed to have changed.  Crowded and noisy. Shopkeepers all peddling the same goods, sellers dogging us while lowering their price as we kept walking, irascible snake charmers and sluggish snakes.  We found a pleasant shopkeeper and settled in to buy some scarves.  We had a nice visit and learned he had been in that spot for 34 years and business was always just OK.  Now there are more people, but more vendors too.

Feeling hot for the first time on this trip, we walked back to where we were to meet the van and were happy to sit down in the air conditioned vehicle.  Nearly everyone had made a purchase and we had a show and tell on the way back to Janen Mayshad.

We had a couple of hours to clean up and rest before the 8pm concert.  Other guests had been invited too, so by 7:30 the garden was filling with folks all dressed up.  At 8pm, Joel Revzen and Susan Graham made their appearance and we all took seats in the living room in front of the borrowed Steinway.

Susan Graham sings for the delighted audience.

While Joel played, Susan sang selections from Summer Nights by Hector Berlioz and Women’s Life and Love by Robert Schumann.

The music and singing were delightful and received a standing ovation.  By 9:30 everyone was in the garden drinking wine and eating small dishes of food delivered one course at a time.    Mark and I said good night about 11:30, but the party carried on until 4am for some folks.  Fortunately for us, the revelers relocated to the pool area and all was quiet outside our window.

June 13, 2019

Departed Casablanca at 10am yesterday and drove leisurely through flat desert and scrub followed by sandy rolling hills and back to flat land when entering Marrakech.  We thought the weather would get warmer as we drove inland into the desert, but the air remained comfortable.

Our driver had no idea where to take us and finally he connected by phone with another driver who led us to Jenan Mayshad.  Thank goodness, or we would never have arrived.  The place is 20 minutes out of the city at a narrow, unsigned, dirt turnoff, followed by a gravel road along broken fencing and unkept desert landscape.

Entrance to Jenan Mayshad

After a few hundred feet we came to a stop at an unimposing entrance gate.  I was feeling uncertain, but when we got out of the car and were greeted by our hostess, Nezha Alaoui, and a few staff people, we knew we were at the correct place.  Nezha ushered us into the grounds of what I will call a country estate.

A view of grounds from our room

Another view of the grounds.

The covered patio where we gathered to chat and snack.

Inside the walls, the grounds were green and lush.  the buildings around us were two story and made of stone, terra cotta and wood finishings.  We turned out to be the first guests to arrive.  After enjoying a tasty lemony drink, Nezha toured us around the whole facility and showed us each of the 17 suites in the complex.  Each one was different.  She had suggested we take the first room she showed us, so we did.  Then she told us it is the room her father used when he owned the property and is, perhaps, the most interesting and spacious suite of all.  She explained that the name of the property stands for Jenan, which means garden and Mayshad, which is a combination of her daughters names, Maysoon and Shaeen.

The entrance to our room and the sitting area beyond.

The step down bedroom with French doors that open immediately to the ground level. Very unAmerican, but fun.

Shortly after settling into the room, other guests arrived.  We met everyone and gathered around a lovely table set outdoors under a lush green arbor for lunch, which started at 3 and finished at 5pm.  It was a delightful experience and reminded me of a similar lunch in a vineyard in Tuscany in 2000.

Lunch at Janen Mayshad with interesting new contacts.

We relaxed in our room and down by the pool with other guests until nearly dark.  We learned that Nazha acquired the country estate, 12 hectares worth, from her father a few years ago, as an early endowment.  She has three brothers and, if she waited until her father died, the three sons would get everything and she would get nothing,  This way her father insured she would receive something.  Both she and he are happy about the arrangement.  She is in the process of remodeling the property into what she hopes will soon become an eco-lodge.  From the looks of the place, she is very close to completing her dream.  We are the first group of guests.  It is not what I imagined it might be, but it is still a very nice experience with very interesting fellow guests

June 13, 2019

We did not get to bed until nearly midnight.  Slept in until 8.   Due to all the conversations happening around the breakfast table, we did not leave for our adventure of the day until 11am.  No one seemed to mind.

Yves Saint Laurent Avenue and entrance to his museum.

Mark next to the YSL emblem.

Story of Yves Saint Laurent on museum wall

A van took 11 of us to the center of the city where we had tickets to see the Yves Saint Laurent Museum.  It was extremely well done and I had a hard time leaving.  There were 50 different outfits on display from 1962-2002, plus audio visual scenes moving on the black walls above and behind the displayed gowns and dresses.  It was awesome to be enveloped in the setting of Laurent’s work. I was very sorry I was not allowed to take photos inside, so I only have photos of lesser images.

Yves Saint Laurent was born in 1936 and died in 2008 at the age of 72.  He discovered Marrakech in 1966, bought a home in the city and returned often.  He and his partner, Pierre Berge are interred together in the adjacent gardens called Jardin Majorelle.  The gardens had been built and maintained by Majorelle, a French orientalist painter, between 1923 and his death in 1962.  The fell into disrepair until Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge acquired the property, restored and embellished it. It is quite lovely now, especially with the rich blue the French painter added to the walls and other elements in the garden.

Jardin Majorelle – a study in blue, bamboo and cactus

THe Jardin Majorelle is a study in blue – rich blue – and it I full of gigantic bamboo and cactus and water features.  Paths meander everywhere.  It is a lovely space, if a bit too crowded.  When Laurent died, Pierre had a memorial to him built in the garden and donated the Jardin Majorelle to a foundation to preserve it.

The Laurent – Berge memorial in Jardin Majorelle.

Remember to double click on any image or text you want to see enlarged.

It took a long time for our group to finish with the museum.  No time had been set and it was after 2pm before we were sitting down to lunch in a nearby cafe. The street was lined with small boutiques and I purchased a top in the rich blue of the Jardin.  It was close to 4pm before we got back to Mayshad.  Fortunately the days are very long and the weather is perfect.

When we arrived, we could hear Joel practicing on the Steinway that had been delivered earlier in the day.

Joel rehearsing for his performance on Saturday evening. His wife Cindy is turning the pages for him.