Over 100 Spanish Cultural Activities To Tour Main Moroccan Cities Until December
The Minister for Culture and Sport, José Guirao, presented the 2nd ‘Visages. Cultura española hoy’ programme in Rabat alongside his Moroccan counterpart, Mohammed el-Araj, and the Spanish Ambassador in Rabat, Ricardo Díez-Hochleitner. This cultural exchange and promotion project seeks to strengthen and consolidate the cultural ties that exist between Spain and Morocco.
The Spanish Embassy in Rabat, the network of Cervantes Institutes in Morocco and the Moroccan Culture and Communication Ministry are also involved in organising ‘Visages’.
At a press briefing, the Spanish Minister for Culture and Sport announced that Spain will be the guest country at the Casablanca Book Fair in February 2019 and that a technical committee will be set up between the Spanish and Moroccan culture ministries to explore lines of action in various cultural spheres, ranging from technical issues involving heritage to musical connections between the two countries, with a special focus on flamenco.
At the ‘Visages’ presentation, José Guirao recalled that, “in today’s globalised world, building bridges for closer ties and understanding between peoples is a basic necessity in laying the groundwork for cooperation” and that culture “plays a major role in bringing us closer to understanding the reality shared by Moroccans and Spaniards”.
José Guirao believes that ‘Visages’ understands “creativity and talent as the wheels on a joint journey that is breaking down borders and nourishing the seed of other partnerships on the horizon”.
To get the ball rolling, the Spanish Minister for Culture visited an exhibition entitled ‘Internitencias’ by the painter María Jesús Garcés. The day will continue with the presentation of a Spanish Cross of the Order of Civil Merit to Mehd Zouak, Director of the National Institute of Fine Arts in Tetuan, and Dris Khrouz, former Director of the National Library of the Kingdom of Morocco. Finally, José Guirao will attend a dinner with Moroccan writers in Spanish organised at the residence of the Spanish Ambassador in Rabat.