There are cities that live quietly within their walls, and then there is Marrakech, a city that breathes through the call to prayer and the hush of painted shadows. It does not merely exist on the map; it pulses in the rhythm of centuries, inherited by artisans and dreamers, rebels and healers alike. And so it was, in this ancient red heart of Morocco, that a journey began, not as an event, but as a remembering.
The Cultivist, with the grace of attentive hands, joined with Hassan Hajjaj, whose lens has long mirrored the many mirrors of Moroccan life: its contradictions, its joy, its satire and song. Together, with the subtle architects of ambiance at Asoni Haus, we envisioned not a gathering, but a communion. One that honoured not just the living, but the ghosts of storytellers past and the unborn voices of tomorrow.
The cultivist x hassan hajjaj
Clients
Hassan Hajjaj /
The Cultivist /
Capital One
Year
2025
OPENING DINNER
At Yasmina Alaoui Studio
with Chef Myriam Ettahri
The first breath of this gathering was drawn in quietude, under a sky stitched with candlelight and North African dusk. It unfolded in the radiant studio of Yasmina Alaoui, a Franco-Moroccan artist whose work dances between the visible and the veiled, each canvas a prayer for synthesis, each sculpture a dialogue between heritage and horizon. Here, art did not hang, it listened. It listened to the soul of a land shaped by Berber whispers, Arabic poetics, and French shadows. It listened to those who walk barefoot across colonized soil, yet carry within them empires of resilience.
Beneath the soft-spoken stars, Moroccan chef Myriam Ettahri composed a feast not merely of flavour, but of memory. Her dishes told stories in the ancient tongue of cumin and saffron, but with the voice of a woman remapping the contours of tradition. A feminine reawakening of terroir, she called it. Each plate a verse. Each spice a stanza.Each course a conversation with Yasmina’s art, a communion of senses and soul.
But this was never about the dinner alone. It was about the echoes. It was about the silences we forget to honour,about those unnamed ancestors who taught us how to harvest joy from scarcity. It was about returning art to the soil of the people, and refusing the marketplace’s cold categorisation. It was about resisting the world’s growing obsession with the 1%, that dangerous illusion of separation and remembering instead that we are one breath, shared in the vast lung of the cosmos.
Chef Myriam Ettahri’s signature dish of the evening.
The spirit of The Cultivist lives here: Not in exclusivity, but in intimacy. Not in prestige, but in presence. To curate a moment, yes, but more so, to midwife a memory. One that binds artist to soil, guest to culture and each of us to the sacred geometry of collective belonging.
As the final candle whispered its smoke into the night, something sacred lingered a sense that this was not the end of a gathering, but the quiet beginning of a remembering. And long after the plates were cleared and the laughter tucked into the folds of Marrakech's evening veil, the essence remained: that we must listen deeply, walk humbly, and create always with the whole of humanity in mind.
Elevating the table experience even further, glassware from The Nook Cairo was used throughout the evening, a thoughtful collaboration rooted in care, slowness, and intention. Known for their philosophy of pausing amidst the chaos, The Nook crafts each piece in small batches, using locally sourced materials and ethical production methods that support homegrown artisans. Their presence at the table not only elevated the visual storytelling of the setting, but also echoed the evening’s deeper themes of mindfulness, artistry, and cultural connection.
As the sun said goodbye, the magic arrived.
Art, light, and connection in every corner.
In this world so desperate to label and divide, where even creativity is fenced in by commerce and category, Alaoui and Ettahri remain gloriously uncategorized. They remind us that true power flows in what cannot be contained: in the bleed between tradition and reinvention, in the sacred feminine that builds, nourishes, transforms.
Yasmina Alaoui, whose hands carry the weight of two worlds Maghreb and Occident draws from memory as if it were clay, etching unseen histories into surface and silence. Myriam Ettahri, whose fire kindles in kitchens but burns in the language of lineage, stirs the feminine divine into each fragrant bite.
Their meeting, midwifed by The Cultivist and made manifest through the vision of Asoni Haus, was no mere alignment of art and cuisine. It was the unfolding of a sacred geometry. Two constellations orbiting the same sky, now drawn into resonance. In that space intimate, candle-lit, breathing with incense and intention, they did not perform. They remembered. They spoke in the ancient tongues of creation: pigment and spice, silence and flame. Their dialogue was unspoken, yet thunderous, a deep acknowledgment of each other’s craft, a bow to the resilience born in the crucible of womanhood.
Each plate Ettahri placed was a protest: against erasure, against expectation, against the sanitized palates of a world that flattens difference into décor. And Alaoui’s art answered, not with theory, but with texture with patterns that held entire ancestries, with beauty that refused simplification.
Asoni Haus, as ever, stood not above, but beside, not orchestrating, but nurturing the conditions for emergence, for truth, for feminine presence. To amplify without exploiting. To serve without spectacle. Together we did not curate an evening, we conjured a ritual. One that honoured the quiet thunder of matrilineal memory, the labor of hands too often unseen, the alchemy that happens when art and nourishment share the same pulse.
Guests were welcomed to an exclusive cocktail and dinner at the private residence of renowned artist, writer and curator Mahi Binebine. Set in an intimate and artistic environment, the evening offered a unique opportunity to connect and indulge in a thoughtfully curated experience. Chef Aniss Meski crafted a creative menu that blended traditional Moroccan flavours with contemporary flair, delivering a culinary journey that delighted every guest. Surrounded by Mahi Binebine’s personal works and collection energy, the event was a seamless fusion of art, culture, and gastronomy, an unforgettable night that celebrated creativity in all its forms.
At Mahi BinebinE’S private residencE
with Chef Aniss Mesk
COCKTAIL EVENING
The night unfolded in layers, art, warmth and a touch of magic.
Inside Mahi’s world where every corner breathes memory and meaning.
A table set for discovery, tradition, storytelling and Moroccan soul.
