Recent Event Highlights: Vail dance: Tango's storied beginnings - Vail Daily News, SFMOMA Elects New Members to Board of Trustees, Salutes Three Staff Members - Art Daily, Jemaa el-Fna Square (Morocco), The Moussem of Tan-Tan, The Cultural Space of Jemaa el-Fna Square, and 1 more...
Created by dipity on Aug 21, 2010
Last updated: 08/21/10 at 04:07 PM
Vail dance: Tango's storied beginningsVail Daily NewsIn 2009, UNESCO declared tango as part of the world's “intangible cultural heritage.” So, it's no surprise, that Damian Woetzel, artistic director of the ...and more »
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SFMOMA Elects New Members to Board of Trustees, Salutes Three Staff MembersArt Daily... the conservation, continuation, and communication to society of the world's natural and cultural heritage, present and future, tangible and intangible. ...and more »
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Jemaa el-Fna Square is a market place in Marrakesh's medina quarter (old city) known for its active concentration of traditional activities by storytellers, musicians and performers. Morocco's Jemaa el-Fna Square inspired UNESCO's Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity label which aims to raise awareness about the importance of oral and intangible heritage as an essential component of cultural diversity.
UNESCO: Representative List (2008) URL: www.unesco.org Description: The Moussem of Tan-Tan in southwest Morocco is an annual gathering of nomadic peoples of the Sahara that brings together more than thirty tribes from southern Morocco and other parts of northwest Africa. Originally this was an annual event around the month of May. Part of the agricultural and herding calendar of the nomads, these gatherings were an opportunity to group together, buy, sell and exchange foodstuffs and other products, organize camel and horse-breeding competitions, celebrate weddings and consult herbalists. The Moussem also included a range of cultural expressions such as musical performances, popular chanting, games, poetry contests and other Hassanie oral traditions. These gatherings took the form of a Moussem (a type of annual fair with economic, cultural and social functions) in 1963 when the first Moussem of Tan-Tan was organized to promote local traditions and provide a place for exchange, meeting and celebration. The Moussem is said to have been initially associated with Mohamed Laghdaf, who resisted the Franco-Spanish occupation. He died in 1960, and his tomb lies near the town. However, between 1979 and 2004 it was not possible to hold the Moussem because of security problems in the region. Today, the nomadic populations are particularly concerned to protect their way of life. Economic and technical upheavals in the region have profoundly altered the lifestyle of the nomadic Bedouin ...
UNESCO: Representative List (2008) URL: www.unesco.org Description: The Jemaa el-Fna Square is one of the main cultural spaces in Marrakesh and has become one of the symbols of the city since its foundation in the eleventh century. It represents a unique concentration of popular Moroccan cultural traditions performed through musical, religious and artistic expressions. Located at the entrance of the Medina, this triangular square, which is surrounded by restaurants, stands and public buildings, provides everyday commercial activities and various forms of entertainment. It is a meeting point for both the local population and people from elsewhere. All through the day, and well into the night, a variety of services are offered, such as dental care, traditional medicine, fortune-telling, preaching, and henna tattooing; water-carrying, fruit and traditional food may be bought. In addition, one can enjoy many performances by storytellers, poets, snake-charmers, Berber musicians (mazighen), Gnaoua dancers and senthir (hajouj) players. The oral expressions would be continually renewed by bards (imayazen), who used to travel through Berber territories. They continue to combine speech and gesture to teach, entertain and charm the audience. Adapting their art to contemporary contexts, they now improvise on an outline of an ancient text, making their recital accessible to a wider audience. The Jemaa el-Fna Square is a major place of cultural exchange and has enjoyed protection as ...
UNESCO: Representative List (2008) URL: www.unesco.org Description: This oral poem, also known as the Hilali epic, recounts the saga of the Bani Hilal Bedouin tribe and its migration from the Arabian Peninsula to North Africa in the tenth century. This tribe held sway over a vast territory in central North Africa for more than a century before being annihilated by Moroccan rivals. As one of the major epic poems that developed within the Arabic folk tradition, the Hilali is the only epic still performed in its integral musical form. Moreover, once widespread throughout the Middle East, it has disappeared from everywhere except Egypt. Since the fourteenth century, the Hilali epic has been performed by poets who sing the verses while playing a percussion instrument or a two-string spike fiddle (rabab). Performances take place at weddings, circumcision ceremonies and private gatherings, and may last for days. In the past, practitioners were trained within family circles and performed the epic as their only means of income. These professional poets began their ten-year apprenticeships at the age of five. To this day, students undergo special training to develop memory skills and to master their instruments. Nowadays, they must also learn to inject improvisational commentary in order to render plots more relevant to contemporary audiences. The number of performers of the Hilali Epic is dwindling due to competition from contemporary media and to the decreasing number of young ...
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