Stephen Emms goes to see if the “artistic spirit lives on in Tangier, the ‘city of dreams.’”
“Samuel Pepys, quite definitely, was not a fan: only Hell itself was worse. Neither was Mark Twain, who desired to leave next day. But for dozens of artists and writers, from Henri Matisse to Paul Bowles, Tangier, on the corner of Africa and Europe, the Atlantic and the Med, has possessed a je ne sais quoi. Its raffish reputation may have dried up since being reclaimed by Morocco in 1956, after decades as an international zone, but, in 2008 is a cultural renaissance again rumbling through the 'city of dreams'?” – from “Tangerine Dream,” by Stephen Emms, The Guardian