134 Correspondances carte blanche Marrakech : a master’s muse The new Yves Saint Laurent museum in Marrakech promises to inject new energy into the ocher city, offering a fitting tribute to its adopted son. For the moment, inquisitive passers-by are greeted by logosplashed construction site fencing, but this architectural project is the talk of the town. In this atmosphere of feverish expectation, a discreet figure is running the show. When Pierre Bergé isn’t around, all eyes turn to Björn Dahlström in the city known in French as the «Gateway to the South.» The opening is slated for October 19, but in the meantime everyone is trying to prise tidbits of information about the program andupcoming events out of him, while the most persistent among them hope for a tour of the site. The tall, classically elegant Dahlström fends off all requests with a charming smile. A born diplomat, he’s skilled at dodging questions while displaying the rigor required to handle a project of this magnitude. His path has seemingly led straight to this job. He’s known Morocco since infancy. «During my childhood I absorbed the scents, colors and sounds of the country. They’re part of me.» At the time, his father was running the family’s construction company. In his teens, Dahlström took off for other horizons—Madagascar, Paris, Luxembourg, Japan—forging a nomadic temperament and nurturing a familiarity with different cultures. Marrakech and the blue hour Soon after graduating in museology and art history from the École du Louvre, Dahlström was appointed head of programming at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Luxembourg (Mudam), before moving to New York, then Tokyo, as contemporary art consultant for Puma. An encounter with Bergé persuaded him to return to his country of birth. «After Japan, it was quite a shock to rediscover the light and scents of Marrakech, and that special rapport with time,» he recalls. He had to readjust his childhood memories. «I remembered it as a vacation spot where we’d come every year for ten days or so. Now it’s a cultural and business center. Marrakech has become an iconic international destination that’s no longer the preserve of those in the know—Yves Saint Laurent, Winston Churchill, Mick Jagger, Andy Warhol—as it once was,» he explains, in the shade of the flowering daturas in the Jardin Majorelle. Behind the lush bamboo we catch a glimpse of the gardens of Villa Oasis, home of Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé. This hectare of land in the city center is filled with citrus trees and rare cacti. «It’s in the evening, after the visitors have gone, that the Jardin Majorelle is at its most pleasant,» a regular tells us. «This garden brings together the myth of Saint Laurent and that of oriental voluptuousness,» says Dahlström. «It was a refuge during the happiest years. A time of friendship and insouciance.» A blue dream. The idea for the new museum came to Bergé after the huge success of the Yves Saint Laurent and Morocco exhibition in Marrakech in 2011. The businessman felt he had a «debt of life and art» toward the country, and decided to invest  € 15 million in the project. It was a rare initiative : to date, only Cristóbal Balenciaga and Giorgio Armani have their own museums. Haute couture tribute From the garden, a few steps down the recently renovated Rue Yves-Saint-Laurent, you come to the spectacular structure built out of Moroccan terracotta bricks, interwoven in subdued damasks. Its interlocking, projecting volumes that vary from building to building—exhibition spaces, auditorium, library, conservation spaces—occupy three levels and cover 4,000 m². «The conservation section is extremely complex because of the dramatic variations in temperature,» explains Dahlström. Studio KO drew inspiration from one of the designer’s sleevedesigns for its curving lines. «It’s the first time we’ve used curves and raw brickwork in this way,» explains KarlFournier, one half of the French duo of architects. «We wanted to combine Moroccan traditions with the world of Saint Laurent.» The two-meterhigh plinth in pink terrazzo sweeps like a bride’s train across the ground, creating the impression that the building draws its strength from the earth. The inside is bathed in a play of light and shade. After passing through a dark corridor, the visitor is greeted with an explosion of light in a huge patio decorated with Saint Laurent colors—a nod to James Turrell’s volcano. The inaugural exhibition in October will showcase the Moroccan paintings of Jacques Majorelle, whose works are already on display at the nearby Berber Museum. With this ultimate tribute, Bergé will have come full circle with the museum, the garden and the Villa Oasis, where Majorelle lived before them. Laetitia Trouillet, créatrice de la marque d’accessoires Lalla. Laetitia Trouillet, designer for the Lalla brand of accessories. Façade en terre cuite du musée Yves Saint Laurent, à deux pas du jardin Majorelle. Terracotta facade of the Musée Yves Saint Laurent, near the Jardin Majorelle.