When an exhibition travels from one venue to another, which elements should remain the same—to impart a sense of consistency and continuity—and which should change—to acknowledge the audiences, spaces, and significations that vary with each exhibitionary context?
When “Medieval Morocco: An Empire from Africa to Spain” left its initial home at the Louvre in Paris to arrive in Rabat's new Musée Mohammad VI d'Art Moderne et Contemporain (MMVI) in March of 2015, expectations for the impact of the show on Morocco's rapidly changing museum landscape were high. Developed by a binational team of museum experts and scholars led by commissioners Yannick Lintz of the Louvre and Bahija Simou of the Royal Library in Rabat, the exhibition was the first product and poster child of a cooperation agreement between the Louvre and Morocco's National Foundation for Museums. An emblem of diplomacy and reform, “Medieval Morocco” was poised to realize the Foundation's...