In July, I participated in the round table organised by Youmein Creative Media Festival that took place at the American Legation in Tangier. In this edition, the festival proposed visual and performing artists to think about Imitation and Tradition in contemporary art in Morocco (these two terms use the same word in Arabic, "taqlid" in singular is imitation and in plural, "taqalid", traditions).
Thanks to the organisation for this opportunity.
In 2010 I came to the desert for the first time. 7 years laters my researches brought me from architectural habitats to non architectural habitats. This a a description of my journey. (Click on the image).
In 2014 we participated in the filming of Planet Sand, a documentary series on desertification directed by Thierry Berrod and produced by Mona Lisa Production, ARTE France, HEILONGJIANG TV, UNIVERSCIENCE, CNRS images and IRD. The series has been aired in France (Arte TV) in May and in Spain (La 2 and www.rtve.es) in June, but it will shown in 100 channels all over the world.
Some people wanted to know how we contacted the filmmaker and how we convinced him to show our projects on this documentary series, in fact, we did nothing, he just contacted us...
This is the story behind our participation in Planet Sand (click on the image).
Pendant la 3ème édition de Caravane Tighmert en juillet denier, nous avons eu une réunion avec les autorités de la province de Guelmim. Ils ont exprimé leur besoin de développer des activités culturelles dans la province, spécialement dans les oasis car d'après eux, il n'y a pas vraiment une politique culturale, ni à Guelmim en particulier, ni au Maroc en général. Bien s'il y a des concerts en été dans toutes les villes, il s'agit, dans la plupart des cas, du divertissement et non pas de la promotion et de la création culturelle (au-delà de la musique). Pour ces raisons ils nous ont demandé de collaborer avec eux pour améliorer l’état de la culture dans la province, puisque selon eux, Tighmert est devenu la référence culturelle de Guelmim, les seuls à mener des activités de formation, de promotion et de création artistiques multidisciplinaires, traditionnelles et contemporaines, grâce notamment à Caravane Tighmert, sans oublier le Festival des Esclaves, les pionniers des festivals dans l’oasis.
Avec Marsad Drâa nous travaillons dans une stratégie culturelle pour les oasis de Guelmim et nous nous posons pas mal de questions avant commencer à proposer des actions:
Plus d'information: ici
Chaque année nous aimons savoir l'avis des participants, voici l'épilogue de la troisième édition:
Pour plus d'information sur cette édition, vous trouverez toutes les photos et les vidéos sur le site:
These are the artists that will come to the oasis of Tighmert next week. The visual ones to make some rsearches on oasian culture.
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)
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
Algunas reflexiones sobre el problema urbanístico de la frontera de Ceuta (pinchando en la foto)
frontera de Ceuta
una década para resolver los problemas
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.
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.
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.
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...
On a day like today, 20 years ago, I became an architect with this Final Year Project, a school of architecture in Seville (Spain).
You will find all the thoughts, sketches, plans and models on this link:
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:
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.
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
