PULSE New York named Hassan Hajjaj their 2014 PULSE Prize winner on Friday. Hajjaj was chosen for the award, including a $2,500 prize, by an invitational jury including Kathy Battista, Director of Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art NY; Paddy Johnson, founder and Editorial Director of Art F City; Julia Kaganskiy, director of NEW INC., New Museum; and Alice Gray Stites, Museum Director and Chief Curator of 21c Museum Hotels. Part fashion photography, part hip hop, part pop art, the self-taught Moroccan-born artist’s work combines a vibrant mix of textures and colors to create stunning portraits as idiosyncratic as the people he photographs.

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It’s just another sunny Saturday morning in the cool, green oasis that is Le Jardin, a lively riad cafe in the heart of the Marrakech medina and the social hub of the emerging arts scene in the old city. What strikes me about the gathering at my table is the cosmopolitan nature of it all. Kamal Laftimi, who owns the cafe, is there with a New York-based restaurant designer, Sebastian de Gzell, discussing a project they will open together in the spring. His wife, Laila Hida, is the creator of a philanthropic new studio space, Riad 18. Artsi Ifrach turns vintage Moroccan textiles into haute couture, while Algerian designer Nyora Nemiche, who sells her flamboyant abaya robes from a pop-up shop above the cafe, counts Erykah Badu and rapper Mos Def among her fans. Together, they form part of a creative revolution that is bubbling away behind the city’s ancient walls.

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Mounir Fatmi looks utterly exasperated. But there is a question I must ask. Last year, the Moroccan-born, France-based artist had one of his works removed from display in Toulouse when certain religious groups took exception to his use of the Quran in the piece. Shortly afterwards, Paris’ Institut du Monde Arabe censored a video called Sleep (Al Naim) because it depicted Salman Rushdie. So does Fatmi willfully chase headlines?

Read More: Mounir Fatmi’s Art Without Prejudice