Alia Al-Senussi is a Libyan-American cultural strategist, art patron and art-world adviser. Her interest is in the relationship between culture and politics, and her speciality is the art, artists and creatives of the Arab world. Her stated goal is to help ‘contemporary art from the Middle East to be a part of the international artworld ecosystem’. She’s currently busy trying to achieve this: she’s a founding member of Tate’s Acquisitions Committee for the Middle East and North Africa, on the board of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, the board of trustees of the ICA and on the advisory board of Delfina Foundation. She is also a senior adviser to Art Basel, while her other advisory roles are frankly too numerous to mention here! We caught up with her in Istanbul, and on the banks of the Bosphorus she revealed her secret travel tips.
My favourite hidden alleyway in the souk of Marrakech is home to Hassan Hajjaj’s studio, called Riad Yima. Hassan is this extraordinary man; every time I walk in there, I’m in awe of this secret garden, the magical, colourful explosion in front of me. He sells prints and objects and T-shirts, coffee cups and cool street wear. And you can have a Moroccan tea too.
Each time I visit, I encounter people that I would not expect to see in this setting. Last time, it was the American ambassador. Another time, two of the most important pop stars of the Middle East were there. And I know he’s been visited by the most incredible people like Beyoncé, Will Smith, Alicia Keys… I haven’t actually seen Beyoncé in the studio, but if he told me she was coming, I’d fly to Marrakech just to meet her!
I’ve been very lucky to know Hassan for 15 or more years now, since the early days of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, which has annual editions in London, New York and Marrakech. Hassan is so kind, and that’s what you feel – the sense of exuberance, of kindness, of hospitality. I was very fortunate to host a wonderful celebration and feast at Riad Yima for my 35th birthday and he photographed me along with many of my friends there. This is a place of gathering. It’s definitely somewhere where anyone who has a belief in the creative spirit feels comfortable. He sets up these unique photo booths and backgrounds in the studio with an abundance of costumes of all kinds; I’ve been very lucky to get to play dress-up and be featured in quite a few of his shoots there.
This is a true secret place, around the corner and down an alley from the Café des Épices. If you’re visiting the city and wandering the souk you can just pop in, but you need to know it’s there, and it requires a knock on the door – perhaps a message on Instagram or WhatsApp first would be a good idea.
If Riad Yima is my favourite secret art studio then my favourite secret, or maybe not-so-secret, watering hole is the bar and terrace at Les Trois Rois, or the Drei Könige, or the Three Kings (choose your language) hotel in Basel. This is a place that just makes me happy, morning, noon and night. Thomas, the bar manager, makes sure I’m taken care of amid the madness of art week.
I’ve been going to Art Basel for nearly 20 years now and I’ve had the happy privilege to stay at Les Trois Rois. It’s an old grand Swiss hotel… an old grande dame Swiss hotel. And from its terrace you can sit and watch the world go by on the incredible Rhine River, people floating and swimming – which I have had the pleasure of doing in the hot weather in June during Art Basel. That’s really incredible, such an amazing feeling: you just float. You don’t swim, you float; it’s so special and not nearly as scary as it looks. I was told about this by the ultimate Baseler, Sam Keller [director of Fondation Beyeler] and have made sure to pass it on to art-world friends every summer since.
And then, of course, you reward yourself and sit on the terrace with your body temperature considerably cooler than before. You can have your coffee in the morning, you can have your lunch (you can have your much-needed club sandwich), you can have your Aperol and other drinks, and you can party the night away during Art Basel’s crazy moments. You can do it again if you come back during the year for the Fondation Beyeler, Basel’s museum for modern and contemporary art, when it does its openings. The Three Kings can truly feel like the centre of gravity of the art world.
And finally, my third tip that I’d like to just throw in there is Roden Crater, James Turrell’s magnum opus in the desert of Arizona, about an hour outside of Flagstaff.
Let’s just say, if you know, you know.
Riad Yima Boutique & Art Gallery, 52 Derb Aarjane Rahba Lakdima Medina, Marrakech 40030, Morocco; instagram.com/riadyima; lestroisrois.com; rodencrater.com
Read more about Alia Al-Senussi and her work at aliaalsenussi.com
Peter Howarth has been the style director of British GQ and the editor of Arena, British Esquire and Man About Town. He is the co-founder and CEO of London creative agency SHOW and managing director of Secret Trips
