The Andalusí Garden visits Meknes

The Andalusí Gardens, Minarets, Orchards and Patios, continues its itinerary of visits to different cities of the World. This time its host is Morroco. This is a travelling exhibition put together by the FUNCI (Foundation for Islamic Culture) under the aegis of a group experts led by President Cherif Abderrahman Jah. The venue shall be the City of Maknes and the exhibition will run from the 19th until the 24th of April as part of the 2nd edition of the International Agricultural Show of Morroco. This is an annual trade show attended by professionals and the general public from all over Europe. Meknes is an eminently agricultural city with extensive olive and grape farms, and where a significant number of Spanish olive producers are investing.

It is against this backdrop that the exhibition “Jardín Andalusí” (The Andalusí Garden) shall be hosted, on this occasion by the Salon International de l’Agriculture au Maroc and the ONEP, to offer a historical and cultural vision of the Andalusí garden, which has such as close tie with this north African city, whose name comes from the bereber tribe Miknasa, and from whom the locality of Mezquinenza in Zaragoza also owes its name.

So, the hispano-muslim garden shall be presented in its different facets: the kitchen garden, with its abundante of ornamental plants and used for agricultural purposes; the scientific garden, in which numerous new species of plants from east were nurtured for experimental end in various fields; the mystic garden, a metaphor for paradise on Herat; and the poetic garden, which has given rise to a genre inspired on floral and landscape design.

The exhibition, with graphic design by Miguel Ripoll, comprises a multitude of panels with text, photographs, drawings and pictures from the botanical gardens of Cordova, one of the FUNCI closest collaborators on this Project.

The exhibition is accompanied by a series of very clever olfactory devices so the visitor has the opportunity to not only see, but also enjoy the most characteristic perfumes of the days of the Andalusí. The models of hydraulic engineering projects have been loaned by CEHOPU (Spanish Ministry for Development) as well as other ethnographic exhibits, facsimiles of agricultural and botanical treaties from the Publishers Moleiro, as and audiovisuals of a recontruction of some of the most symbolic Hispano-Muslim gardens which have been loaned by Antonio Almagro, Director of the School of Arab Studies in Granada.

The exhibition has been put together with the assitance and collaboration of the following institutions, just to name a few: The City Hall of Cordova, the Ministry for Culture and the Board of Trustees of the Alambra and Generalife, Acciona Trasmediterránea and the  Instituto Cervantes which, in conjunction with FUNCI, have produced the virtual exhibition El Jardín Andalusí, which can be visited at:   http://cvc.cervantes.es/ACTCULT/jardin_andalusi/

Dates: 19 to 24 April 2007

Venue: Pôle Nature. Salon International de l’Agriculture au Maroc. Meknes