caravane tighmert 2015-2017 /  by Carlos Perez Marin

In two weeks we will have a new edition of Caravane Tighmert. This is a compilation of the activities we have done since 2015. Thanks to all the inhabitants of the oasis and the artist that have come during these years.

(Caravane Tighmert is parallel program we organise from Marsad Drâa with friends from Tighmert, Guelmim in the south of Morocco)

 

caravane tighmert 2017 /  by Carlos Perez Marin

In just six weeks we will be in the oasis of Tighmert, Guelmim (Morocco) for another artist gathering on contemporary oasian culture. This will be the third time we invite visual artists, musiciens, dancers... to a place that was considered as a Saharan port, with caravans heading to Mali and Mauritania. Nowadays, there is still a culture heritage that reminds the connections between the north and south shore of the Sahara desert. 

There is a call for visual artist (till the 18th June), you just need to send an email with a website, Facebook page or some images representative of your work (to caravanetighmert@gmail.com), and also a small text (two phrases) explaining why do you want to comme and what would you like to develop as research during the gathering.

You will find more information here:

Caravane Tighmert is organised by "Association des Amis du Festival Caravane Tighmert" and Marsad Drâa

heidi vogels / gilles aubry in Tighmert /  by Carlos Perez Marin

Last week I had the opportunity to share some, and new, amazing experiences with Dutch artist Heidi Vogels (www.heidivogels.nl www.gardensoffez.com) and Swiss artist Gilles Aubry (www.earpolitics.net), and of course with Ahmed Dabbah. 

Heidi Vogels

Gilles Aubrey

The artists came to make some researches on oasian way of life (inside and outside the oasis) and on traditional music. During our stay, we could better understand the importance of Tighmert in the Moroccan history as well as in the current natural ecosystem of the region, thanks to the spring near the oasis, a real crossroad in the Oued Noun region. 

 

However, non of these experiences can be compared with the encounter with nomads. We had the opportunity of sharing one night with a nomad family, talking, singing and sleeping with them, and another one with camel herders, learning more and more about this incredible animal. 

 

Moreover, Gilles could meet some descendants of ancient Guedra dancers that performed for Paul Bowles in the 50s, as well as women working and singing near the oasis.

It will be very interesting to see what artists will produce with all the materials they got during the week, maybe we will see a preview during the next Caravane Tighmert festival in July...

Thanks to both of you for trusting us when we proposed you the oasis of Tighmert as an artistic place for research and creation.

 

 

 

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)