Interview – Towards more balanced international partnerships with Mehdi Qotbi
Interview 2/6: Towards more balanced international partnerships with Mehdi Qotbi
This is a new instalment in our series dedicated to the discussions and debates held during the conference African Museums: Today and Tomorrow, produced by France Muséums at Louvre Abu Dhabi in January 2025.
One of the roundtables on the subject of international partnerships provided a vital opportunity to discuss the dynamics redefining cooperation in the cultural sector. How can we move beyond models inherited from the past to build partnerships that are more balanced and respectful of cultural specificities?
Mehdi Qotbi is a visual artist and has been president of the Fondation nationale des Musées du Maroc (Morocco’s National Museums Foundation – FNM) since 2011. His mission is to create and develop art centres and museums that are accessible to all throughout the kingdom. With France Muséums he shares his vision of how collaboration dynamics should evolve and the role that Morocco and Africa as a whole can play on the international stage.
Could you give a brief description of Morocco’s National Museums Foundation and the project Cité de la Culture Africaine – Musée du Continent?
The National Museums Foundation was created in 2011 at the instigation of King Mohammed VI. The aim of this independent institution is to consolidate museum governance in Morocco and to promote the nation’s cultural, artistic, and archaeological heritage, notably by supporting the 21 museums currently open across the country.
At the start of 2025, several museum spaces were opened thanks to Foundation’s involvement. For example, the Villa Carl Ficke, Casablanca’s Memory Museum, and the Reconstruction Museum in Agadir, whose subject is the 1960 earthquake and the city’s history. We also supported the reopening of the Al Batha Museum of Islamic Arts in Fez following restoration work.
Another such initiative is the Cité de la Culture Africaine – Musée du Continent, a project designed to showcase the whole of the African continent. Located in the heart of Rabat, it was designed in tandem with the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, which stands directly opposite. The two structures will be connected by a tunnel, like an umbilical cord that points to the relationship between Morocco and other countries on the African continent.
The Cité de la Culture Africaine, which covers an area of 13,202 m2, will offer a range of programmes that emphasise the abundance of modern and contemporary African creativity. It will be a space dedicated to encounters, sharing, training and collaboration, a dynamic meeting place for African artists and cultural players. It is due to open in late 2026-early 2027.
Why is it important to reinvent the frameworks of international partnerships in the African museum sector?
Museums should serve as a means to forge strong and lasting connections between cultural players whilst providing African artists with a space for expression and the opportunity to resonate with creative production worldwide.
I believe that culture, by its very nature, has to be shared, and, in that capacity, it can become a powerful lever for diplomacy and influence. Museums are no longer simply places to preserve objects; they have evolved into strategic agents of soft power.
For African countries, investing in the development of museums and cultural institutions is one way to reclaim their narratives, to assert their heritage, and to champion their place in global cultural exchanges.
Historically, cultural collaborations have often followed a top-down approach, where museums and institutions in the Global North played a pivotal role in the exchanges and circulation of artworks.
It is essential that this dynamic be reversed and a more horizontal dialogue be encouraged. These days, South-South relations arise more spontaneously, with direct cooperation between heads of museum and cultural institutions simplifying exchanges and allowing cumbersome administrative procedures to be side-stepped. This horizontal approach is also boosted significantly by sharing knowledge and capacity building. Expertise can be shared by developing – in collaboration with African and international partners – accessible training programmes for museum professionals.
Such an approach enables greater flexibility to address concerns specific to us as Africans and can help us to build on our relationships.
What role does Morocco play in these partnerships?
Morocco participates dynamically in this transformation of partnership paradigms and is becoming a model as a result of its ambitious cultural policy that has driven it forward since 1999.
The creation of the Cité de la Culture Africaine – Musée du Continent in Rabat is a perfect illustration. This project, designed as a pan-African cultural hub, aims to provide a platform for artists, academics, and museum professionals to exchange ideas, create and pass on knowledge.
Other initiatives bear out this commitment. In 2017, the FNM organised the event “L’Afrique en capitale”: for a month, Rabat was the venue for 36 varied cultural events (exhibitions, lectures and performances) commending African art. This major celebration was followed by the “Lumières d’Afrique” exhibition at the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in 2019, which displayed the work of 54 artists, each representing one of the continent’s 54 countries. Furthermore, in 2022, Rabat was nominated the African Capital of Culture by the NGO United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG – Africa).
These achievements reflect our ambition of making Morocco gateway to cultural and artistic Africa so that the continent becomes better known and understood.
Why are these spaces for dialogue, like the Abu Dhabi conference, so important?
I would like to thank the conference’s organisers as these opportunities for meeting and dialogue are essential.
Africa’s institutions must be able to fully take part in the great debates regarding museums and heritage. International conferences like the one held in Abu Dhabi offer professionals, intellectuals, decision-makers and artists visibility and a space to exchange views on their shared concerns.
This event, which I hope will be held on a regular basis, also fosters mutual understanding and reflection on current challenges, reinforces links between different regions and cultures, and paves the way for new collaborative projects.
To learn more about the conference produced by France Muséums for Louvre Abu Dhabi
