Yves Saint Laurent’s house and garden

The approximately 50 meter long line of visitors along the Rue Yves Saint Laurent in the Guéliz district of Marrakech is coming to a halt. Nothing works anymore because there are once again too many crowding into the Jardin Majorelle. With around 800,000 visitors a year, the 4000 square meter garden is one of the main attractions of the city. The reason for this is not obvious at first glance. Well, 300 different types of plants (especially cacti, bamboo, palm trees and succulents) from all five continents grow lovingly cared for next to each other. That delights the botany connoisseur. Everyone else is looking for the spirit of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent here.

In 1923 the forgotten French painter Jacques Majorelle created this garden. In the center he had a studio built. He painted this in an intense blue, which was later patented as “Bleu Majorelle”. After Majorelle’s death in 1962, the property was left to decay, and when it was to make way for a hotel project in 1980, it was saved by Yves Saint Laurent and his life and business partner, Pierre Bergé. The two bought the house and garden, reforested, renovated and in 2002 – when Yves Saint Laurent ended his career – retired to this oasis of calm in the middle of busy Marrakech.

When the designer died in 2008, his ashes were scattered in the rose garden, which is not open to the public. Bergé erected a monument to him in the neighborhood in 2017: a magnificent museum by the architects Olivier Marty and Karl Fournier. In order to raise the construction costs of 15 million euros, Bergé sold his art collection and large parts of his library. The relief-like texture of the brick façade takes away the heaviness of the building, and the bricks give the impression of an airy shell.

The collection includes 20,000 designs by the designer, and biographical information about Yves Saint Laurent is shown in the cinema, which is well worth seeing. In terms of content and aesthetics, this building has surpassed the garden. Bergé died in the opening year of 2017, since then its preservation has been financed by his Majorelle Foundation.

Info: museeyslmarrakech.com, jardinmajorelle.com

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Peter Grubmuller

Head of Culture

p.grubmueller@nachrichten.at

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