L’Apartement 22 – Promoting Art in Rabat
Located on Mohamed V Avenue in Rabat, L’Apartement 22 was founded by Moroccan art historian and curator Abdellah Karroum in 2002, with the first exhibition featuring the works of Younes Rahmoun and Safaa Errouas under the title of JF JH Individualities and addressing social issues in a country in the midst of democratic change. Since then, Apartment 22 has continued to promote freedom of expression through art, holding exhibitions and working in conjunction with Ecole Nationale d’Architecture (ENA) in Rabat and the School of Visual Arts (ESAV) in Marrakech, as well as reaching a broad audience through the internet radio site Radio Apartment 22.
As a privately run cooperative, Apartment 22 offers the opportunity to live and work in Rabat to artists and curators from a variety of backgrounds. Applications to participate in the program, which offers between two and four residencies each year, can be made to Apartment 22 for consideration. While creative space and accommodation is offered, applicants must be able to finance their living expenses. This arrangement offers a great opportunity to applicants to mingle with, and learn from, the artistic community in one of Morocco’s most vibrant cities.
Artists who have been featured at L’Apartement 22 exhibitions include Algerian-born contemporary visual artist Adel Abdessemed; Moroccan photographer and head of Cinematheque de Tanger Yto Barrada; Lebanese contemporary artist Mona Hatoum; Spanish multimedia artist Antoni Muntadas; Moroccan visual artist Younis Rahmoun; and French meta-artist John Paul Thibeau.
The founder of L’Apartement 22, Abdellah Karroum, was born in the Rif region of Morocco in 1970. He has been involved in a number of artistic projects in Morocco, and was the curator for the 2005 Biennial AiM in Marrakech, a multimedia event initiated by Vanessa Branson. Karroum is the author of The Apartment 22 published in 2008 and was associate commissioner for La Triennale de Paris, and the Benin Biennale in 2012. L’Apartement has participated in a number of international exhibitions, including Intense Near at Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2012; Sentences on the Banks and Other Activities in Amman, Jordan in 2010; A proposal for the joint works and places at the Museum of Contemporary Art I Palermo in 2010; and Home Relative in South Korea in 2008.
