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A home for culture in the Heart of the Medina

Dar Bellarj

Ch[a]rita / السِّيس 2025

Charita 2025, themed “Times to tear, and times to mend,” is an eighth-day festival in Marrakech featuring artistic interventions, screenings, and conversations. Curated by Francesca Masoero and Rim Mejdi, it explores the city’s collective memory, temporalities, and public spaces through site-specific works by local and international artists.12

- The 6th edition of the Charita festival takes place from February 21st to 28th, 2025, across various locations in Marrakech, including Bab Lkhmiss, Harti Park, and Dar Bellarj. Under the curatorial theme "Times to tear, and times to mend," the program investigates the relationship between art, urbanism, and a city's collective consciousness. Rather than being a mere "event" for consumption, the festival is designed as a ritualistic space for reflection and imagination.345

The 2025 edition of Charita, titled “Times to tear, and times to mend,” positions art in public space as a vital dialogue between the city, its inhabitants, and its history. Curated by Francesca Masoero and Rim Mejdi, the festival resists “eventification”—the trend of short-term, consumer-driven cultural events—by fostering ephemeral interventions that leave lasting residues on the city’s collective memory. Running from February 21st to 28th, the program activates symbolic spaces across Marrakech, from traditional medina fountains to popular marketplaces.111213

Key Program Highlights:

  • Site-Specific Interventions: Raymond Gemayel’s Peacock Water Clock and Clepsydra utilize water flow to connect Islamic engineering history with urgent environmental questions. Souki Belghiti’s Sandmen installation occupies an old hammam to create a space for intergenerational memory through Moroccan lullabies.614
  • Public Engagement & Play: Aliocha Tazi’s mobile baby-foot, Le3bou w Rta7ou, encourages spontaneous social encounters in Bab Lkhmiss and Harti Park. Meanwhile, Grocco’s Obje(a)ction uses found materials to reflect on urban transitions, inviting the public into a “hunter game” through the streets.1516
  • Knowledge & Archival Research: The program includes a listening session by Alia Mossallam on decolonized archives of WWI prisoners. It also features the presentation of Garden Utopias, a photographic cookbook by Kimiā Collective developed with local mothers and youth.1718
  • Dialogue: The festival concludes with a conversation between Ch[a]rita artists and Studio LABERINTO at the Imprimerie Regionale, focusing on strategies to preserve and reinvest in Marrakech’s architectural heritage.19