Inside Vive la mariée !, Institut du Monde Arabe’s Love Letter to the Maghrebi Wedding

If there is one thing the Maghreb knows how to do, it is a wedding. In fact, one of the Arabic words used for marriage, farah, literally means “joy”, which feels like the perfect starting point for Vive la mariée !, the new exhibition at Paris’s Institut du Monde Arabe exploring weddings across Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

Rather than looking at marriage simply as a ceremony, the exhibition considers everything surrounding it: the clothes, jewellery, music, dancing, food, rituals and, perhaps most importantly, the women who make so much of it happen.

The Wedding Wardrobe Alone Is Worth the Visit

At the heart of the exhibition are around 40 historic costumes and pieces of jewellery from Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian collections, dating from the 19th and 20th centuries and being shown in France for the first time.

Through bridal dress and the clothes worn by the women surrounding the bride, the exhibition traces regional differences as well as traditions shared across communities, including those between Muslims and Jews.

There is also a closer look at the women behind the celebrations, from preparing the bride's trousseau and making garments to accompanying her through the different stages of the wedding itself. What makes Vive la mariée ! particularly interesting is that it doesn't leave these traditions in the past.

Alongside the historical pieces, 27 contemporary artists, predominantly women from Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and their diasporas, have been invited to look at marriage from their own perspectives.

Some celebrate the traditions and collective joy surrounding weddings; others question what these rituals tell us about gender, society, inheritance and the ideologies we continue to carry with us.

It turns the exhibition into something bigger than a display of beautiful wedding clothes. What do we keep? What changes? And what do the rituals surrounding marriage still say about us today? Presented as part of Saison Méditerranée, Vive la mariée ! brings together contemporary art, archival material and historic objects within an immersive scenography incorporating the sounds, movements, clothes and food associated with Maghrebi weddings.

And because you can't really make an exhibition about a Maghrebi wedding without an actual celebration, the accompanying programme will kick off with “Raconte-moi ton mariage,” a large festive procession under the artistic direction of Mohamed Bourouissa. Frankly, we're ready for the farah.

Cover Photo: Ghalia Kriaa, At the Hajema, 2025, vidéo. © Ghalia Kriaa

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