Symposium: On common[ing] visions
Marrakech, Morocco
15—16 March 2019
In the context of Meet the Neighbours, LE 18 has been continuing development of its long-term project QANAT, by inviting three artists to continue or start research exploring the politics and poetics of water as a commons.
The seminar On Common[ing] visions comes at a temporarily conclusive moment in this cycle of residencies and investigates the diverse methods developed by artists and cultural actors for engaging communities in responsible and affective ways to create critical spaces of inclusion, visibility, solidarity and shared visions in fractured societies. Drawing from the practice of QANAT artists Anna Raimondo and Jérôme Giller, but also from local initiatives such as ‘Boulevard de la resistance’ run by artist Laila Hida, On Marche festival and Dar Bellarj Foundation among others, and thanks to the theorico cum methodological contribution of artist Jeanne van Heeswijk, the programme reflects particularly on the poetics and political ecologies of water as an entry to read and engage the city and its fragmented communities, as well as its situated forms of resistance, embodied for instance by feminin cosmologies, feminist practices, by gestures and the body traversing the public space and the urban scape.
By intersecting and integrating its own programming with the festival On Marche and of Dar Bellarj, the symposium finally attempts to mirror the links of solidarity and neighborhood that have been sewn for years by cultural institutions engaged with (partly) different communities in and on the city of Marrakech.
Symposium contributors
Laila Hida (artist - founder of LE 18), Flore Grassiot (architect and urbanist), Maha el Madi (director of Dar Bellarj Foundation), Mamans of Dar Bellarj, Anna Raimondo (artist), Jerome Giller (artist), Angouan Cooperative (weaver cooperative), Jeanne van Heeswijk (artist and activist), Noureddine Ezzaraf (artist and cultural activist), Edouard Sors (architect, artist and activist), Lucia Citterio (artist), Nafass dancers, Abdellah Hassak (artist)
Schedule
Friday 15 March 2019
10:00 – 13:00 Le regard des ains – Walk organised with Edouard Sors around Riad Laarouss, exploring water communal spaces in disparition through the memories and visions of women.
16:00 – 18:00 @ LE 18 Geographies of the commons - Common geographies | Signing, sounding and spacing communities (working title) – Round table with Laila Hida, Flore Grassiot, Noureddine Ezzaraf, Abdellah Hassak, Anna Raimondo, Richard (? → sharing experiences and approaches of MTN partners), and moderated by Francesca Masoero.
18:30 @ Dar Bellarj Opening of Ain Zarbia at Dar Bellarj – Installation by Jerome Giller, part of the upcoming exhibition of QANAT In a the space of a V, and book launch ‘Marrakech: Lieux Evanescents’.
Saturday 16 March 2019
10:00 – 13:00 @ LE 18 Preparing for the not yet – Lecture and workshop led by Jeanne van Heeswijk picking up from previous reflections and exploring questions related to agency, responsibilitym affection, the right of the city, radicalising localities and spurring collective imaginaries.
14:00 – 15:00 in the surroundings of LE 18 Performance Corps-Paysage – Proposed by choreographer Lucia Citterio and the dancers of Nafass / On Marche.
15:00 – 18:00 @ Dar Bellarj Ain Zarabia – Presentation / exchange by Jerome Giller with the Angouan weaver cooperative, in dialogue with Dar Bellarj and the cooperative Anou.
