Artist residency at the French Institute, Tetouan, Villa Dar Ben Jelloun
Morocco Residency
The program of artistic residencies of the French Institute of Morocco, can accommodate twenty
residences each year, for artists from French-speaking countries and open to all artistic
disciplines. This program acts in the service of contemporary creation and cultural cooperation
between France and Morocco to encourage a privileged meeting with local cultural actors and IFM
audiences through renditions, this program is a call for dialogue between cultures.
Tetouan and Fez are UNESCO world heritage cities, I was struck by the authenticity and beauty of these cities, its two medinas, its inhabitants and its craftsmen, who perpetuate a know-how of millennial traditions.
The goal in this residence is to enrich myself with my environment and to meet the local cultural actors. These residencies allow me to create maps of the world by collaborating with craftsmen whose know-how is a poetic language in my eyes. The transmission of knowledge is precious. During this residency, I place traditional Moroccan crafts at the heart of my practice. Working with artisans who perpetuate a know-how from millennia traditions nourishes and inspires my work. The gesture, the action, is already the purpose of the work. The hand, the tool, the material, teach us. What is produced leads to reflection, our hand shows us and prolongs our thought.
A map is not only a locating device, it is the work of a cartographer, who must collect information, identify and determine landmarks, then it is a translation in drawing and choices of colors, forms , letters ... To be a cartographer is to look at the world as a spectator and then to organize it, with a certain structure so that it becomes intelligible. The choices of the cartographers take us to very variable perceptions of the world. The map is not neutral because the world is materialized through codes.