planète sable, arte tv /  by Carlos Perez Marin

This evening, on Arte TV, will be aired, for the first time, the documentary serie on desertification directed by Thierry Berrod. One of the 5 episodes will be consecrated to the Sahara desert and we explain the project we proposed from Marsad Drâa, rammed earth dwellings as barriers against desertification (made by Inssaf Bourhim and Najelae Chairich) and the research on dune barriers we are developing in Tissardmine.

 

 

dwellings-dune barrier projet

We explained the project made by Inssaf and Najlae in the same plot, in Amezrou. Later we went to other locations in the Fezouata palm grove, to show the consequences of desertification. Finally, we were in M'hamid El Ghizlane where the sand in "erasing" a village built during the 80s. 

 

dune barrier construction in Tissardmine 

In order to test the viability of the dwelling proposal, we built a curved rammed earth wall in Tissardmine (Rissani) during the documentary shooting.

 

We are still watching and studying the interactivity between the dune and the barrier...

 

 

 

almoravid city (?), rissani (morocco) /  by Carlos Perez Marin

When I made the caravan between Tissardmine and M'hamid, I passed near a hill with a stone wall that remind me the old city of Tazagourt, in Zagora, a city used by the Almoravid army in the 12th century. Some weeks later I asked Mohamed Boussalh, head of CERKAS in Ourrzazate, and he told me that fortification in front of Taouz, was also an Almoravid city.

 

Now I have visited it and there are some strange things. There is no building outside the walls and overall, there is no ceramics... Was it really a city or just a permanent camp for the army?

Anyway, it is sure this was a very important point to control the caravan routes, the ones coming from Algeria and M'hamid El Ghizlane (which means from Mali) to Sijilmasa.



Caravanes routes:



skoura, ouarzazate /  by Carlos Perez Marin

The palm grove of Skoura is well known because it is closed to Ouarzazate and its airport, even if the landscape with the High Atlas mountains behind is quite impressive, there are other palm groves more interesting. The main problem is the abandon of agriculture, young people prefer to work on tourism (in Skoura, in Ouarzazate or even better in Marrakech) instead of working in their own lands. That inactivity carries on the impoverishment of farmlands and the arrival of sand, in the next desertification phase that will be the fruit trees to disappear, leaving only the palm trees, but they will finish to fall down.

The most interesting building is the Amridil kasbah, the owners are making an effort to rehabilitate it with the money visitors pay, keeping live the importance of this place.

caravane routes /  by Carlos Perez Marin

During several weeks, we have been travelling virtually searching places (some of them do not exist anymore hidden under the sand) that were/are used by caravans in their ways from north to south and from west to east, through the Sahara desert.

Our research group on caravans has done this Google Maps file where you will find a superposition of routes appeared in several books and papers (information collected by Amado Alfadni, Pau Cata, Eleonora Castagnone and Carlos Perez Marin).

LE MAROC SAHARIEN DES ORIGINES À 1670, D. Jacques-Meunié

SUDANESE TRADE IN BLACK IVORY, Ahmed Abdel Ghaffar

THE FORTY DAYS' ROAD, W.B.K. Shaw

CARAVANES D'ALGER AU NIGER PAR LE HOGGAR, Frédéric Nussy

THE TRANS-SAHARAN BOOK TRADE, Eric Rosse

We will complet the map once we get more information



paseo de las palmeras de ceuta 2002-2017 /  by Carlos Perez Marin

15 years ago we started the works for the renovation of the "Paseo de las Palmeras" in Ceuta.

You will find on this link all the information about the projet, the competition, the researches during the execution project, others complementary proposals, the works and the present state.

We won the competition at the end of November 2001 and the works (I quitted the works three months before they finished them) were finished in December 2003, which means, we had only two years to do the project and to build it. It was crazy but we also had the opportunity to work with an amazing team (José Luis Pérez Marín, Antonio Molina Ortiz, Vicente Vicent / Juan Astorga, Rocío Salvador, Ismael Martínez, Rocío Martín, Desirée González, Judith Martínez, Nordim Abdesalam, Mayte Martín, Francisco Pantano/ Manuel Pérez Marín / José Luis Pérez Díaz / José Luis Gómez Barceló / Ricardo Ugarte / Younès Rahmoun, Antonio San Martín, Ahmed Amrani).

Even if we made some mistakes and despite the changes the Mayor has made during all these years, I think the city is better now, with all the new public spaces.

About the acoustic protection, one of the raison I quitted the works (the Mayor didn't want to build it because it was a very contemporary element for the city), I'm still waiting to see what politicians will do, now that they have the legal obligation to protect the dwellings from the trafic noise in the area.

inba workshop, tétouan /  by Carlos Perez Marin

It has been a pleasure to organise a workshop for the students of the art school of Tetouan (the only belonging to the culture ministry). During three weeks we have been working on art interventions in public spaces, more specifically in the medina from the 15th century.  

Besides, it has been an honour to teach at this school, because the history you can find on its ateliers and corridors. Most of the best Moroccan artist have studied here and I hope some of mines will in the future.

Institut National des Beaux-Arts de Tétouan (Maroc)

atelier avec l'Institut National des Beaux-Arts de Tétouan /  by Carlos Perez Marin

 

This week we will start a workshop with the students of the art school of Tetouan (Morocco) on contemporary art in public spaces. To be continued...

Fez-Merzouga ETSAM /  by Carlos Perez Marin

Trip with the students of the architecture school of Madrid (ETSAM) and their teacher Marta Maiz.

We had the opportunity of visiting the city of Fez, the archeological site of Volubilis, the dunes of Merzouga and the ksar of Mezguita (Rissani).

During our stay in Merzouga the students had also the opportunity to collaborate with Spanish artist, Ruben Martin de Lucas (www.martindelucas.com) on his research "burocracia".

We would like to thank Ahmed Laaroussi, head of the architecture school of Fez (Université Privée de Fès) for letting us discover the medina (with Mr Benkirane).

 

#etsam #trip #desert #fez #heritage #architecture #dune #nomad

qafila thania routes /  by Carlos Perez Marin

We are working on the next caravan, Qafila Thania, in the framework of Project Qafila. After Qafila Oula we are studying three possible routes for this new experience:

Tissardmine-Figuig: 324 km, 15 days
M'hamid-Agdz: 194 km, 10 days
M'hamid-Tighmert: 464 km, 21 days

These routes were used by caravans arriving from Mali and Mauritania in theirs ways to Marrakech and/or Fez.

To be continued



caravans researches /  by Carlos Perez Marin

We could say we just started a research project on caravans. In fact we just agreed to share the information we have been collecting during our researches, it doesn't matter if they have been made by visual artists, curators, sociologistes or architects, or if they concern Morocco, Mali or Sudan. On the contrary, we think it is even better to have several approches from different disciplines. Maybe we will continue to work by our own (but with more information), perhaps some of us will develop some concret projects, let's see what happens...

Thanks to Amado Alfadni, Olì Bonzanigo, M'barek Bouhchichi, Eleonora Castagnone, Pau Cata and Carlos Perez Marin for sharing your work and for trusting in this proposition.

This is the first transdisciplinary research group, others will come with students from the INBA (Tetouan), ESAV (Marrakech), FST (Errachidia), ESMAB (Fez), so feel free to propose one.