Lazy Abstract:

When disasters devastate whole regions and populations, like the historic earthquake hitting Central Morocco two weeks ago, one can feel awkward, inappropriate or even unethical when wandering through art fairs in a safe place, discussing ridiculous prices with clients or listening to some privileged collectors talk in front of an abstract artwork. In this case, the art world can seem so far from the reality of the majority of people. This is when I developed what I call my professional “conch-reflexe”, to disappear and take a step back from an industry that takes itself far too seriously considering real tragedies are actually impacting people’s lives. But still, we need Beauty in times of horror, and there is a way out from that moment of unethicality: it is when you decide to act. Many actors of the art industry, whether artists, curators, online art platforms, galleries or fairs, have tried to act during times of disasters, crisis or even war. In the case of Morocco today, you can make a difference now by supporting an artist-led initiative, Artists for Morocco, which sells photographic prints to support humanitarian NGO’s in the field, and become a socially conscious and mindful Collector through very affordable and meaningful art.

I sometimes wonder whether this professional-conch-reflexe is due to my previous career as a diplomat, when reactivity to a crisis was a matter of actual survival (and of political egos). Stepping foot in immediate post-war African countries, talking to child-soldiers and meeting with sexually abused girls in conflicts certainly was a heavier role than doing any activist artist studio visit - however politically active they can be. It certainly taught me a lot about PPPs and taking a step back from the seriousness of the artworld. I remember my first “crisis” as an art professional, when a museum manager, sweating stressfully, came to see me during our event saying: “We have an emergency.” Still affected by an ex-diplomat’s conflict-PTSD, I was expecting the worst - for a museum scenario. Did the collection burn? Did the artist break a leg? “The champagne has not arrived for the opening in 20 minutes”, he said. Sighing on my side, fortunately just a PPP. I couldn't care less, and replied we would enjoy a dry opening. Since then, I keep telling my clients that one key to keep enjoying the hustle of art fairs and exposed gravitas of art galleries is to not to take art itself too seriously, even if art can constitute the cultural heritage of a Nation. (Looking for humor in art does not only make things easier and more accessible, it also makes better art collections - more on this in an upcoming article, just subscribe to the link below).

But let’s be clear: I do not regret the political or diplomatic sphere and I left for the exact same reasons I can feel today in the art industry: a feeling of helplessness when facing disaster. 

Fortunately, there is a way out. I am glad it does not take me years like a conch to un-bury itself from the sand to reach the ocean; it only takes a few days of observation to leave my conch-shell before acting. Not being a Doctors-Without-Borders surgeon capable of saving lives in a conflict, we have to cope with our own reality and see what we can do within reach. Queen conchs’ average reach for survival and living often falls within an acre. So let’s each act within our own reach and our own capacities, whatever field we are in. In fact, after the conch-shell-reflexe, I start sorting out the mediatic flow on the disaster, do some research, call some friends or contacts close to the ground, or ex-colleagues working in the humanitarian field, and ask what can be done and what makes sense. While humanitarian workers dig under the rubbles to extract bodies, I dig into online options to try to help. It sounds terribly frustrating at first hand but relieving when someone tells you that it can actually make a difference.

And suddenly, you start perceiving the light at the end of your helplessness-tunnel, (not thinking of the light the survivors under the rubbles may see to breathe) and seeing again the possible connections between art and disaster relief, the existing bridges between collecting art and activism or humanitarian support. Because you are in a better position to help when you are not a victim.

How to make a difference through art in times of disaster

There are numerous examples of art being used in times of crisis or catastrophe, either as a healing tool to overcome mental, emotional or physical distress, as a means to raise awareness or show empathy with the victims of the disaster, or a way of expressing discontent on how the disaster is being handled, just to name a few perspectives. I have studied a few cases in an essay titled “Art and Politics facing Disaster in the Caribbean”, published in the collective book “THE POWER OF THE STORY: Writing Disasters in Haiti and the Circum-Caribbean”, edited by Vincent Joos, Martin Munro & John Ribó (Berghahn, 2023). 

I happened to introduce this paper with an illustration of a painting of “Lwa Goudou”, a Haitian folkloric character known to be a strong terrifying creature living beneath the ground and causing the earth to tremble. The painting, created by Haitian artist Edouard Duval-Carrie, was commissioned in 2020 by the Winthrop-King-Institute of Florida State University to commemorate the Haitian earthquake of January 2010. The artwork was inaugurated in the context of a conference organized at the Institute on Disaster in the Caribbean. Maybe every earthquake has its own “Lwa Goudou” to justify the absurdity and injustice of hitting thousands of people without warning. Maybe Morocco has its own “Lwa Goudou” to accept the unacceptable.

Cédrick-Isham Calvados, a French-Caribbean photographer from Guadeloupe, spontaneously decided to publish on his Instagram account photographs from a recent visit to Morocco before the earthquake (see cover image), to share awareness about the tragedy and to share several links of organizations coordinating humanitarian relief for the victims. His very peaceful and poetic photographs are not only a striking contrast to the chaotic devastation of the High Atlas Mountains, but also echo his practice of always putting forward human dignity whatever their condition. An artistic act of solidarity without borders.

Shortly after the earthquake hit Central Morocco, 26 emerging and established Moroccan photographers and artists worldwide have launched a photographic print sale online, Artists For Morocco, whose proceeds are donated a 100% to two NGO’s: Amal Women’s Training Center, a Marrakesh-based women’s charity delivering food to victims in remote villages, and Rif Tribes Foundation, an artistic and humanitarian non-profit organization bringing aid and support to the affected areas. Among the artists contributing to the emergency sale are Yto Barrada, Hassan Hajjaj and Meriem Bennani, whose photographs are sold, like all other works on the sale, 134 $USD. Those who know the artists’ careers may realize the gap with their usual prices. And those who want to collect consciously, ethically or mindfully have a unique and affordable opportunity to act now, by supporting this Artists collective through a quick online purchase. I can only commend a new  New-York based client, who accepted to kick off their collection by acquiring a photograph of Imane Djamil from this charitable sale.

Artists however are not the only ones to try to be more impactful for disaster relief. Institutions, too, can contribute to the collective effort and make collecting art more ethical and impactful during times of disaster. 

The public reaction to the disaster by 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair was immediate, partly due to the founder, Touria El Glaoui’s, own ties to the North African country, and because the fair has an edition in Marrakesh (next one in february 2024), in addition to London and New York. The fair initially announced a relief fund in partnership with other regional partners, such as the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden and the Montresso Art Foundation, and a collaboration with artists. However, the exact actions have not been communicated and the ties with Artists for Morocco are unclear for me at this stage.

Other than these two initiatives, little has been done in the art world to try to help the victims of the Moroccan earthquake, leaving it to the humanitarian organizations to complete their mission. No one can be blamed for this, as it requires a certain set of organization, logistics and verifications before creating a relief fund from scratch that actually benefits the affected population.

Various channels of ethical collecting do however exist in other areas: 

Artsy, for instance, regularly organizes impact auctions to support certain populations or causes by donating part of their proceeds to non-profit partner organizations. Past examples of Artsy Impact Auctions include support to refugees from Ukraine in 2022, the fight against irresponsible gun legislation reform in the USA through a youth led organization in 2022, or the protection of LGBTQIA+ youth through the Ali Forney Center in 2023. The latest Artsy Impact Auction, selling an artwork by Miwa Komatsu, however was not dedicated to Moroccan relief but to another Natural Disaster Relief, related to wildfires and flood damage in South Korea. We certainly cannot stop all the wildfires at the same time and may need to choose our battles.

Another online art sales platform, Art for Change, offers art “for the socially conscious collectors”, by making a donation to the nonprofit of the artist’s choice, joining collecting and philanthropy. The company does not currently offer support to Morocco, but allows collectors to choose their cause.

Art Collecting as a Philanthropic Pursuit is also put forward by the Bessemer Trust to make collecting art more socially impactful. 

(c) Nikita Kadan,  from the series "Broken Pole", 2019–2021, Iron, print on silk, 150.5x112 cm (60x44 in),  Voloshyn Gallery

Galleries can also position themselves to support artists in difficulty or through war times, such as Voloshyn Gallery, an underground gallery space in Kyiv, that converted into a bomb shelter as the war broke out, reverting hence to its original use during Soviet times. Its founders, Julia and Max Voloshyn, were “saved” by Covid as they could not return to their home country, Ukraine, after their participation at Untitled Art Fair in Miami in 2021. They avoided the war with Russia. Instead, they decided to organize a pop-up exhibition curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud in Wynwood, Miami, to support some of the artists who could or would not leave Ukraine and experienced the destruction of their country. When I visited the show, and being myself a collector of affordable art, I immediately knew I wanted to support the gallery and decided to buy a small water painting by Maria Surylenko, making therefore an exception to my collector's statement of acquiring only Caribbean contemporary works (so as to focus on one narrative and stay within my restricted means). Otherwise, I would have loved to support also Nikita Kadan’s photographic series and work with cement, which reveal how fragile human lives and constructions are everyday in his home country. Kadan, who is often collaborating in his works with architects, sociologists and human rights activists, is also a founding member of Hudrada (Artistic Committee), a curatorial and activist collective.

Kadan's work and the story of the gallery somehow make me thing of the historic role a curator played during World War II to avoid the bombings of artworks: French Resistance Fighter Rose Vallard, who studied at the Ecole du Louvre, and became an unpaid assistant curator at the Jeu de Paume in 1936. Looking naive and probably too French to speak fluently German, Rose was able to trick the Nazis and spy on the Rosenberg Special Task Force tasked to plunder artworks. The Jeu de Paume hid the “room of martyrs”where “degenerate art” was kept and destroyed in front of her eyes, including works by Miro, Klee, Picasso. But she was able to help save other possessions of many collectors and had a monument role in the recovery of 60,000 works of art by creating a treasure map of the pieces she was able to hide, to avoid the bombing. 

More recently, many Curators have embarked on a socio-political or activist mission, including to raise awareness on how disasters impacted a population in certain contexts or how they were handled by political authorities. The powerful exhibition “No Existe Un Mundo Poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria”, curated by Marcela Guerrero at the Whitney Museum last year, is for me one of the best recent contemporary art exhibition examples on the theme of disaster. The exhibition looked at the human loss, the collective trauma, the fractured infrastructure and ecological devastation, but also the beauty and poetry created in a disastrous political and sanitary environment. In this exhibition, Yiyo Tirado Rivera’s sandcastle “La Concha”, named after a hotel in San Juan, is yet another symbol of the fragility of coastlines and constructions not only in the Caribbean but in the Global South, swallowed by erosion, sea level rise, hurricanes and earthquakes, just like Medina’s sand walls in Morocco.

YOU can become a Mindful Art Patron

From World War II to the recent earthquake in Morocco, we may have drifted in the nature of the disaster.  But actually, not so much, as all disasters end up being political, and my three main conclusions remain the same:

1) In the end, even “natural” disasters are provoked or accentuated by Humans (through pollution and climate change, through weak development of basic infrastructures and buildings etc.) and therefore not as far from man-made catastrophes and wars (more on this subject in my essay mentioned above “Art and Politics facing Disaster in the Caribbean”);

2) Therefore, everyone can take responsibility and play a role in either trying to diminish the contribution to such disasters, or at least help in the aftermath of the catastrophe, whatever your scale, wherever you are. You don’t need to be a Moroccan conch to act in Morocco.

3) And finally, YOU can decide to make a difference as an Art Patron, by collecting responsibly, ethically and mindfully. Art History and art communities will thank and remember you for this. Have a look today at the Artists for Morocco sales, or support other artists communities in need. 

Our World is on Fire, Don’t Look Away. We are One People.

(c) Nari Ward, "We The People" (Arabic version), 2019, shoelaces, 60x213,5 inches, Courtesy: the artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, London, Palm Beach, Hong Kong, Seoul