Carlos Perez Marin

   During our research stay in Moulay Bouchta with Abdeljalil and Gilles in September 2018, we discussed several times how we could organise an event where we could showcase the progress and results of our research. On the one hand, there was all the work that Abdeljalil had developed in his home-studio after his studies and once he returned to the village. Then, there was Gilles with his solo sound research, with Abdeljalil and also with Ramia Beladel. This could have been enough, but in order to consolidate Moulay Bouchta as a fertile ground for artistic research (but not only...) and the development of a contemporary culture based on the vernacular culture of the village, we thought it would be good to invite artists and researchers to come and spend time in Moulay Bouchta, with the idea of showing their work during the event in spring 2019. Although Abdeljalil was known on the Moroccan art scene (especially among artists of his generation and later), each of us proposed artists whose work resonated with the place. The easiest thing was to call on friends who could trust us since it was about going to the countryside for a week, during the previous months, with typical rural comfort conditions, and then participating in a very first experience in a village like Moulay Bouchta and with a minimal budget… Finally, Younès Rahmoun, Saïd Afifi and Mustapha Akrim joined Abdeljalil Saouli, Gilles Aubry and Ramia Beladel to show works or make interventions, which we considered as a good start, and especially a way to attract interest among other artists for the upcoming editions. We also wanted to count on art history researchers with the aim of helping us develop the cultural proposal. Thus, Fatima-Zahra Lakrissa agreed to come and spend the weekend with us, discovering Abdeljalil's work and the village.

    In our conversations preparing the event there were quite a few references to Caravane Tighmert (Abdeljalil and Gilles had been to the oasis several times), given the similarities; a village deeply rooted in the landscape and in agriculture; remote location; fairly present vernacular culture; absence of cultural policies; importance of its heritage and history; very young population… We were, however, going to take advantage of the experience acquired at the oasis (at the time, for 4 years) to test activities that worked in similar contexts, although they were two different projects. In Tighmert, we found that the best way to approach contemporary art to the local population was by organising workshops with children and young people and opening the activities to all the inhabitants of the village (which was not difficult given the role of Abdeljalil and his family in the village).   

   As we talked around us about what we were planning, we realised that maybe we were going to have quite a few visitors, but in Moulay Bouchta there weren't guesthouses like in Tighmert to accommodate everyone. Abdeljalil quickly talked with his neighbors to accommodate friends, which gave us the opportunity (as in Tighmert) to showcase the local traditional architecture. In the end, we were overwhelmed by friends, by architecture students who came from Fez and Rabat (students I had met in Fez during a talk organised by Takafes in January 2018, just before my first visit to Abdeljalil's) and by fine arts students from Tetouan. We had to use a large tent typical of the region to accommodate more friends. I loved the idea of having a tent as a fairly present infrastructure like we still have in Tighmert.

   The event needed a name. We immediately agreed to keep the name Sakhra; we needed an Arabic name that could be easily pronounced in French and English. Moreover, sakhra, meaning rock in Arabic, perfectly represented the role of geology and orography in the village.  

graphic design

   We also needed to develop images to accompany the information we were going to publish on Facebook. At first, I tested using an image of the kholwa of Sidi Moulay Bouchta for the logo, since this space was quite representative of what encouraged us to conduct research. Then, there was the possibility of showing the name of the event in Latin and Arabic characters and this gave results that could have been used given the graphic complementarity of the characters and also the colors.

   But it was necessary to test these images on the posters, which I had started to study at the same time, knowing that the beige color used in the cladding of the buildings and the millstones could be a visual reference.

   It was necessary to show the relationship between rock and architecture. The images of the profile of the rocks in Moulay Bouchta could be used as a background image, first in monochrome mode (based on the beige of the plaster), then filled in black to show the importance of the rock, but finally we simplified it with a simple line after conversations with Gilles. On these posters I also tested different logos and colors for the information that was to accompany the drawing.

   In the end, we decided to simplify the graphic elements as much as possible, including the logo and the colors, using only beige for the background, red for Abdeljalil's house, and the rest in black. Especially since we were going to add more information later, such as the location of the houses with exhibited works and the program of activities.

informations to share

   The lack of a website meant we couldn't share information of interest. Gilles prepared a file with the project's intentions, our thoughts and our research fields.

the site

   It was difficult to describe the village and its surroundings, particularly the relationship between the geology and the houses. A few photos were shared to provide an overview for participants and potential visitors.

activities

   The first activity we proposed was the discovery of the village, its surroundings and Abdeljalil's house-workshop. A walk around his house allowed us to meet his neighbors, visit hidden places, get to know the visitors... One of our objectives was sharing and not to have a very busy program; we had to leave time for conversations, for discussions, sometimes provoked, sometimes spontaneous, in small groups, in pairs, it didn't matter, but the interaction between participants, visitors and residents had no limits and from my point of view, it was a great success on our part. In fact, Tighmert had shown us the importance of creating atmospheres so that this sharing is real by breaking down the boundaries between contemporary and traditional cultures or simply by bringing contemporary art to a rural society.

   To create the atmosphere mentioned above, it is essential to find the complicity of the children and young people of the village. It was not a question of giving them drawing or painting lessons, but of exchanging with them. Thus, the earth architecture workshop allowed us to know their relationship with architecture, what they thought of houses built of earth, concrete blocks; the relationship with animals, with rocks… Once again, we applied what Tighmert taught us. It is curious to see how children have built habitable spaces by taking advantage of cavities in small rocks, highlighting the presence of rocks in their daily lives.

   We had workshops throughout the weekend in which visitors (art students, architecture students, artists, filmmakers, etc.) and participants were involved, but they also participated in workshops organised by locals, such as stone throwing.

Abdeljalil Saouli

   For Abdeljalil, Sakhra was very important; he was going to receive visits from a lot of friends and colleagues; he was going to (co-)organise an event in his village, showing that beyond the moussem and wedding parties, contemporary culture had a place and that there was an educational deficit linked precisely to culture. As an artist, he wanted to claim his artistic freedom. It should be noted that after his studies at INBA Tetouan, he participated in exhibitions in Casablanca, Fez, Rabat and Marrakech (including Hybridations at Voice Gallery) but his artistic concerns, his research and his mediums did not attract the attention of collectors, galleries or curators, at least not to consider settling in a big city like Marrakech. Faced with this incomprehension, he decided to settle in his village, to build his house-studio and take care of the animals and olive trees, while developing his art. Some of his friends thought that by making this decision he would leave the art world, which is why Sakhra was an opportunity to show that he was still an artist and that he had chosen another path, certain, more complicated, but with a lot of creative freedom.

   Speaking with him and Gilles, it was clear that his work had to be shown in its entirety. The old works were already installed on the plot or in his new house, but this construction was already an art installation. The family home, the stable, small cliffs, the paths leading to the house... all these spaces were used to show his new works, in which he explored the traditional architecture of the region and its relationship with geology and the environment. 

Ramia Beladel

   After participating in Caravane Tighmert in 2017, Gilles wanted to collaborate with Moroccan artists and asked me for the names of several with whom he could work. Among the names I gave him was Ramia, who came to the oasis in 2015 and 2016 and whom I knew from her years at INBA Tetouan. Since Ramia and Abdeljalil were together at the time, Ramia and Gilles agreed to work together in Moulay Bouchta. Sakhra 2019 was a good time to showcase their collaboration, in a community listening session in the tent set up for this purpose (and for hosting friends).

Abdeljalil Saouli and Gilles Aubry

   The stays in Moulay Bouchta to collaborate with Ramia Beladel were an opportunity for Gilles to discover Abdeljalil's work, but it was probably his lifestyle that attracted his attention, especially considering that Gilles was working on a doctorate in social anthropology at the University of Bern in Switzerland around Sound Pluralism, embodiment and ecological voices in Morocco. However, having the opportunity to work on the sound and artistic practice of Abdeljalil (very rooted in his village) was a valid field of exploration, from an academic research point of view, for his doctorate, which later led to a publication: Sawt, Bodies, Species. Sonic Pluralism in Morocco. Chapter 5, Stoundsound (pages 195 to 233), is devoted to the research carried out by Gilles and Abdeljalil, including this video that they made during our research in September 2018 and which was shown in the kholwa. 

   Gilles also published an article on the research with Abdeljalil in the publication Studies in the Arts II - Künste, Design und Wissenschaft im Austausch.

   Aside from researching the sound of stones, Abdeljalil and Gilles also worked on the sound perception of animals. They built a leather device with a binaural microphone to attach to a goat's head and record the sounds it picked up over the course of a day. The sound installation was first shown in 2018 at the Communism of Waves exhibition held at the LE 18 Marrakech cultural center and then at Moulay Bouchta during Sakhra 2019.

   There was a stark contrast between the Marrakech installation and Moulay Bouchta's. Although Le 18 is a riad, the binaural microphones and the leather dispositif were hung from the ceiling of a small exhibition room, while in 2019, everything were hung on the wall of the house that Abdeljalil's family uses to keep animals, including the "protagonist" goat. This comparison served to spark a conversation about exhibition spaces. Sakhra 2019 showed that exhibitions are also valid in non-museum spaces. In fact, we displayed artworks in the family's stables, and to visit them, you had to walk between goats, sheep, and cows.

Gilles Aubry

   I had already attended a performance by Gilles, it was at the oasis, during the 2017 edition of Caravane Tighmert, but this time, he wanted the performance to be participatory. He asked the children from the village that accompanied us to do as Abdeljalil had done in the Soundstone video, hitting pebbles against the rock to listen to their sound:

   “Through tapping, the limestone blocks reveal a rich soundscape, somewhere between a lithophone instrument, a sound lab, and a living ecosystem carved by water erosion”. Gilles Aubry.

   At the same time, Gilles used this sound to mix it with other sounds, amplify them and reproduce them with the help of a loudspeaker and a megaphone, while climbing to the top of the rock.

Aubry- Perez Marin-Saouli

   In the previous pages we can find the genesis of Kholwa, the result of the research that we (Abdeljalil, Gilles and I) carried out between 2017 and 2019, but during the 2019 event we used this space to show the video SOUNDSTONE by Gilles and Abdeljalil. After testing several options, we found it very relevant to do the projection directly on the rock, without a white screen area, giving meaning precisely to Kholwa and to the video.

Younès Rahmoun

   Younès came to Moulay Bouchta for the first time in January 2019. When I told him about what we were planning, he immediately agreed to participate. He has always held Abdeljalil in high esteem and was aware that his presence could help raise the profile of the event, Moulay Bouchta and Abdeljalil. Moreover, the Taounate region is close to his family's home region, Al-Hoceima. It was in the village of Beni Boufrah that Younès spent his holidays and where he began to create his first (outside) art installations.

   Before proposing an intervention, Younès wanted to scout the area and possibly choose a specific spot to show his work. Finally, he decided to bring the work MARKABA (vehicle or vessel in Arabic), which he had designed after a trip through the Rif and which was made by artisans from Fez. That is to say, the work resonated perfectly with Moulay Bouchta (which is also part of the geographical region of the Rif). Markaba was first exhibited at the Appartement 22 in Rabat in 2016, then in Doha (Qatar) in September 2019, in 2022 in Bensouda, Fez, as part of the 20th anniversary of Appartement 22 (exhibition L’appartement 22 (2002-2022)), in 2024 in Marrakech, at Malhoun Art Space and later at the Smith College Museum of Art in Northampton (Massachusetts, United States) during the HERE,NOW exhibition.

   During Sakhra 2019, I sent Younès several photos of the traditional houses in which his work could be installed. It wasn't easy given the dimensions of Markaba and the rooms, but he had to validate the proposal in order to reserve the space and finish distributing all the artists' works. Due to an impediment, Younès couldn't arrive in time for the Friday "opening," so I decided to mount the piece without him. Once done, I sent him some photos for his approval. He replied that the connection with the room space was good, but that everything had to be dismantled and wait for his arrival because this work had a "procedure."

      Markaba was conceived as a kind of vessel capable of transporting us elsewhere but at the same time creating its own space within its interior (even around it) where a person could introduce his head and move away from his surroundings (only 6 small holes let the light pass through, referring to the system of dark rooms that Younès was developing at the same time in his installation Qomra). It is usual in Younès' work to confront form and interior space, combining them with philosophical and spiritual concepts. Despite its volume and fairly precise geometry, the interior space, almost black, allowed us to orient ourselves according to the cardinal points thanks to the holes located in these same axes, placing the visitor in the center of his own universe and in the middle of a temporal space; between past and future. Light became the instrument to connect the body with consciousness through meditation.

   However, to show the character of a vessel that had just landed from space, it was necessary to position Markaba in nature; in the surroundings of Beni Boufrah (Al-Hoceima), during the exhibition De la Mer à l’Océan in Rabat ; in the Qatari desert for the exhibition Little Worlds, Complex Structures in Doha… It was nevertheless necessary to dismantle the piece and transport it to a place representative of the nature of Moulay Bouchta. Younès chose the part at the top of the rock that served as a refuge for Abdeljalil's house. When he was finishing the assembly (with the help of his former students from INBA), I started calling everyone, but he immediately told me that people should not go up. His idea was to photograph the piece from above, dismantle it, bring it back to the house from below and reassemble it. For him, it was in this "exhibition room" that visitors could contemplate it. I explained to him that the room's dimensions would only allow 3 or 4 people inside and that it would be a shame not to leave it there and watch how the locals and visitors would interact with it. He agreed and finally we signaled to the children and young people who were doing workshops below to come up and watch Markaba.

   In fact, it was an incredible moment that showed how contemporary art could approach our societies without requiring prior knowledge of art, not even a mediation.

   In the early evening, the artwork was moved to the Saouli family home and was visited during the day on Sunday.   

Mustapha Akrim

   Mustapha was unable to go to Moulay Bouchta before, but he brought a (permanent) work that was easy to install; he simply had to look for a good place. He didn't have to search much; for him, it was obvious that he had to put it on top of the rock that protects Abdeljalil's house. Point de Repère works like GPS beacons, which are located in different geographical points that allow navigation in the region they cover. In his artistic and personal journey, Mustapha keeps three places in the Moroccan geography that are very dear to him: Beni Boufrah (Al-Hoceïma), Tighmert (Guelmim) and Moulay Bouchta (Taounate). His first artistic residency was in Beni Boufrah in 2012 as part of the Expeditions to the End of the World organised by Abdellah Karoum (founder of Apartment 22 in Rabat). In 2016, he participated in the second edition of Caravane Tighmert. In 2019 it was Sakhra's turn in Moulay Bouchta, when he set up his landmark, giving another red ball to Younès' uncle (who lived in Beni Boufrah) and another to me to leave it at the oasis of Tighmert (Ahmed Dabah had put it on the roof of his house but the 2020 fire completely burned it).

Saïd Afifi

   Saïd is a good friend of Abdeljalil and his intentions were to come to Moulay Bouchta before the Sakhra weekend, but he was unable to come. Aside from their friendship, Saïd's work maintained a fairly close relationship with Moulay Bouchta. In the 2017 video, Etymology (shown in Abdeljalil's family home), futuristic architectures mix concrete and rocks in a world where humanity no longer exists, but where there is a dialogue between past and future, between tradition and contemporaneity... It's as if the video was talking about Moulay Bouchta and Sakhra. There were no better place to show the video that in a traditional house, in one of Saouli house’s room, even if it was using a white sheet as screen.

   Finally, some images and a video as a visual epilogue of the 2019 edition of Sakhra. A first attempt that we considered to be rather successful. Despite the constraints related to logistics, I think that the atmosphere that was created, the conversations established and the works shown have achieved our objectives: the opportunity that rural areas offer to contemporary creation; the demand for artistic education and the training that can be provided through workshops; highlighting the heritage and traditional culture of remote regions. 

   It should be noted that a few weeks later, echoes of Sakhra reached me through several friends from different Moroccan cities (Tangier, Tetouan, Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakech). That is to say, there was a great impact on the Moroccan cultural scene, indicating that there was an event in a village with exhibitions deployed in traditional buildings, with public conversations in caves, music, workshops, walks... For me everything was true but what shocked me was the extent of the repercussions and the comments that highlighted such a cultural proposal that should be an example of the cultural development that should be done in Morocco. Why did this perception strike me if I was one of the initiators and organisers? Simply because we had never had this reaction to Caravane Tighmert, because we had been organising it for 5 years and on the other hand it was Sakhra which, suddenly, after only one weekend, became a model and a cultural reference. Why this difference in impact? I think it's due to Moulay Bouchta's geographical location. We've had visitors from Tetouan, Tangier, Rabat, Fez, Casablanca, Marrakech, and even Tighmert, but having the country's main cities less than two or three hours away is an advantage. There's also the issue of the audience. In Tighmert, until the first four editions, we always had concerts and audiences, but from the oasis, Guelmim, and Sidi Ifni, which belongs to a different cultural scene: music. There is also the question of mental geographical borders, ans from someone from Marrakech, for exemple, to come to Tighmert, the journey is much longer, even if in fact is shorter than coming to Moulay Bouchta. Since Ahmed Dabah also came to Moulay Bouchta, we agreed to analyse Sakhra and see if we could apply any activities or concepts to Tighmert.

   In any case, we were very proud and happy with the results and we left thinking about a second edition in spring 2020...