For the duration of a festival, Tiznit celebrated silver jewellery (25/28 August) with a rich programme for discovering the city's curiosities, its maze of streets, its history, and above all its willingness to look to the future.

"Everywhere in Morocco, they will tell you the same thing: It is in Tiznit that you find the best authentic product," confides Halima, in her forties, speaking to her friend from Casablanca who came to see what this festival is like.

As an expression of particular interest in this event, intended to enhance the potential of local crafts and promote the city of Tiznit, an important official delegation came to kick off the festival.

The opening ceremony was enhanced by the presence of the Minister of Handicrafts, the governor of the Tiznit province, and local deputies and elected officials.

"Wherever you go in Tiznit or elsewhere, you will not find watches like these made in the local tradition," says Ahmed, an exhibitor. "Are you looking for watches? Here, you will find them cheaper than elsewhere. Everything else comes from Malaysia or Italy."

Established in Place Mechouar in the heart of the old Medina, this open-air silver exhibition covers an area of nearly 5,000 m2 and brings together eight workshops of 20 masters (maâllem), who showcase the various trades of silver jewellery (engraving, chasing, filigree, cloisonné enamel, casting, etc.).

Placed under the theme "Silver jewellery: identity, creativity and development," the Timizart Festival aims, according to its initiators, to promote local crafts, particularly silver jewellery, and to contribute to the promotion of cultural tourism in Tiznit, a city that has no fewer than 150 shops and workshops for manufacturing and selling silver jewellery.

"But for heaven's sake, I didn't travel a thousand kilometres there and back just to have to buy Malaysian or Italian goods in my own country!" protests another customer.

As harsh as it may be, this reaction carries no weight compared to an article published a week ago on the site "Adrar.com", where a scathing indictment is addressed to officials to take into account a heritage in decline.

In Tiznit, several local artisans have reason to complain because of the squandering of entire sections of a memory subjected to melting, so much so that an association, called "Imi Ougni d'Anezi" (Tiznit province), proposes a series of suggestions. Anxious to keep alive the material and symbolic legacy of a tradition in decline, the same association proposes targeted actions aimed at villages producing and crafting silver, adequate training for artisans, and the promotion of training.

If only by its title "Timizart", being the plural of Tamazirt in the Amazigh language, this festival is also a bearer of diversity in a city that, very early on, claimed the nickname of the silver capital.

The exhibition ends today. It is an initiative of the eponymous association, in collaboration with the Chamber of Handicrafts, the municipality and the provincial council of Tiznit, the Maison de l'Artisan, and the support of other public and private partners.

In addition to exhibitions of handicraft products, the programme for this edition includes musical evenings, fashion shows, fantasia performances, and a wedding ceremony in the pure tradition of Tiznit.

Among the artists who will perform at this edition, mention should be made of Said Mouskir, Fatima Tihihit, Said Sanhaji, Hatim Idar, Simon Says, Amine Mounder, Amanouz, Oudaden, and the local groups Azawan N'sous, Toudert, and Imdiazen.