Zonder Titel / Sans Titre

“The project UNTITLED / Moussem Festival Spring 2007 at the MuHKA is the result of a six-year quest to find ways of engaging people with art and culture, to tell a different story about the ‘Moroccan’, the immigrant, the other who usually turns out not to be so different after all. Moussem is not a story of providing answers, but rather of asking questions. One of those questions for this project was ‘how does an audience of non-connoisseurs of contemporary visual arts relate to the collection of a Flemish institution, the MuHKA?’ The answer provided by Moussem Club, which created the collection presentation for this project, is astonishing in every respect.

Another question is ‘how do Morocco and, by extension, the Arab and Islamic worlds relate to modernity?’ We hope to find an answer, or the beginnings of an answer, in the works of the ten artists selected for the exhibition. Perhaps we will arrive at an entirely different set of questions? Yet this project is not merely a story of institutions and organisations. It is also a story of people who share the same concerns and dream of a better world.

UNTITLED Moussem Festival Spring 2007 aims to be a project that challenges all established concepts. It is not a traditional exhibition or festival; nor is it a story solely about the visual or performing arts. Charif Benhelima is not a conventional curator, Bart De Baere is not an ordinary museum director, and Dorian van der Brempt interprets the concept of neighbourhood in a very unique way… That is why this publication is not a traditional catalogue either. We felt it appropriate to outline not only the artistic narrative but also the background to this project, placing it in a broader perspective through contributions from various authors.”

— Mohamed Ikoubaân