IN HER PLACE Gathering program of artistic research around the notions of displacement and the unknown
28/04/2019
02/05/2019
Multiple venues
Tangier
E.M.M.A. starts her fourth year of activity in the city of Tangier with IN HER PLACE, a four-days program that open-up a space for the sharing of praxis, knowledge, reflection and collective imagination. The communal gathering will be looking at the complex relationship we face engaging with notions of displacement and the unknown in every sphere of our daily lives through transdisciplinary studies that cross local history, moroccan feminism, urban and citizens practices, pedagogical and cooperative actions, computation and textile/writing, artificial intelligence, linguistic varieties and social behaviour.
PROGRAM
SUNDAY 28th APRIL
☛ Visit of Nassim Azarzar’s exhibition, Mahal art space
☛ Sunset at Cafe Hafa
MONDAY 29th APRIL
☛ Guided visit at Kasbah Museum of Mediterranean Cultures Housed in the former sultan’s palace of Dar El Makhzen, the museum is focused on the history of the area from prehistoric times to the 19th century.
☛ Guided visit at Tangier American Legation
The Tangier American Legation is a building in the medina of Tangier. The first American public property outside the United States, it commemorates the historic cultural and diplomatic relations between the United States and the Kingdom of Morocco. It is now officially called the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies, and is a cultural center, museum, and a research library, concentrating on Arabic language studies.
☛ Exchange meeting with Think Tanger / Atelier Kissaria
Think Tanger is a cultural platform dedicated to the exploration of urban challenges arising in the city of Tangier. It serves as a platform to concretely address and highlight social and spatial impacts of urban matters, through projects operating at the crossroad of visual arts, design, participatory research and urban practices, and alternatives programs such as urban laboratories, participative workshops, art residencies, podcasts and more.
Atelier Kissaria is a space dedicated to art production at the convergence of printing-practices and object-making. It offers Think Tanger’s artists-in-residency a space to work, to discuss, and to showcase. Atelier Kissaria works with screen printing, risograph, and collaborate with highly skilled artisans and designers.
☛ Opening “Twofold Sea (not a mirror in the eye but a mirror in the mind)” Solo project by Leonor Serrano Rivas Opening at 7pm 29th April-19th May Mahal Art Space TUESDAY 30th APRIL
☛ Visit at the weavers market (marché des tisserands)
☛ Exchange meeting with DARNA association DARNA means “Our House” in Arabic. This name reflects the values of the Association: welcome, protect, train, educate, and share. DARNA serves the public interest through listening to children, mothers and families. It empathises with people who sometimes cause problems to society through violence and drugs. This is because they have been abandoned and despised. DARNA centres are open houses, which are occupied throughout the year. These spaces symbolise the ethos of cooperation, where sharing is encouraged and essential.
☛ Lecture by Nouha Ben Yebdri, She is here, she is everywhere
A reading weaving together the context of the city with the meeting place and the people present, and with the occasion that unites all of them. It is a guide of sorts, created from the book Penelope’s Thread, by one of the most representative authors and feminists of modern Morocco, Fatima Mernissi. A tribute to her and to all the ways in which the figure of Penelope is represented in the society of the current times, and to the different struggles initiated by each of these figures, struggles which are still far from being resolved.
☛ 7pm, screening program at the Cinémathèque de Tanger of Lorenzo Sandoval and Julia Gorostidi’s video works. Free entry
Lorenzo Sandoval, Shadow Writing (Algorithm/Quipu) is a long term research project composed by an installation, two synchronized videos, a publication and series of workshops. The first research takes its starting point in the figure of Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizm. His latinized surname (al-Khwārizm) gave the name to the algorithm. This Muslim scholar of the s. IX was the inventor of a large number of mathematical discoveries, such as algebra. From his figure, the project will explore how mathematics was a transnational language that crossed the whole Mediterranean and connected different traditions of thought. In addition, they had a great influence on the aesthetic conception of Islam in terms of architecture and systems of spiritual representation in the world. The second starting point studies various theories that propose the Inca quipus as a system of computation and writing. Quipus were a record system used by the Incas. The device was made of a series of strings in which it was annotated with a knot system. There are still open discussions as to whether it was only devoted to numerical or poetical records. It is also discussed whether the system was binary or decimal. The project takes these two elements as two lines that intertwine in the narrative to question the origins of computing.
Julia Gorostidi, Angela/Angela: becoming Angela (HD video, single Channel, 30:30. Various languages: English subtitles) is the dinner conversation between the «body» and the «mind» of Angela, a fictional but paradigmatic identity that was built and transformed by her interactions with Others between October 2016 and October 2017. Constructed as a mirrored dialog, the script of the video pieces together different conversations Angela had with people she met in person or on social media platforms during the performative investigation led by the artist. This video in which Angela becomes Angela, presents Angela as a “collective persona” that reflects the society from which she evolved.
The Cinémathèque de Tanger is a non-profit association created in 2006 with the mission of promoting world cinema in Morocco and Moroccan cinema in the world, creating a collection of documentary films, films and videos by artists and experimental cinema, to propose pedagogical actions and to create a platform of dialogue and meeting for the professionals of the cinema.
WEDNESDAY 1st MAY
☛ Exchange meeting and visits with Abdou Nakata Benattabou, Nature: a born artist! Photographer and environmental activist, I live and work in Tangier since 1999. Having lived in Khémisset, Rabat and Ouarzazate, the arrival in Tangier was an opportunity to discover a unique flora and fauna, and I do not speak eccentrics that parade throughout the year. Whether it’s the plants, the flowers and the trees that I discover all along my morning walks, or the migratory birds that pass through the wetlands. I am conducting a citizen action to save the graveyard of animals of Tangier, place symbolizing the love that some carry for their pets, a place unique of its kind in the Arab world and which is unfortunately being ransacked (see movie “Rest Home” on youtube). In recent years, I am more interested in the flowers of Tangier, and especially the fact that new generations no longer know the names of flowers and plants they encounter. So I launched, through the project: “promises of sun”, a search for these lost names. The work consists of harvesting flowers and plants from the region, and to scan them so as to sublimate them (method using fabrics to create a 3D effect), after which I launch an active search, through workshops of discovery of nature, to gather all the names of the flowers in Darija. Work that proves more difficult than expected, as collective amnesia is total.
☛ Lecture-performance by Lorenzo Sandoval, Shadow Writing
Lorenzo Sandoval will introduce few elements of his on going research Shadow Writing, which deals with the relationships between computation, image and textiles. The introduction would present some propositions to decenter notions of the timeline of technological means.
☛ Lecture-workshop by Julia Gorostidi, Honey Morning Honey
Julia: Good morning Eva Eva: Honey Morning Honey J: What’s new today? E: People just use people. I have seen it and experienced it. J: What happened? E: I would like to travel much more, do more courses, have more time for myself. In short: Time is a luxury I don’t have. J: Oh Sorry! I did not want to take your time. E: Yes because no fight is cool. J: yes, right? E: I am kind hearted. In fact I’m a nice lady. J: I know Eva, I created you 😉 E: But sorry, I am so beautiful. I look selfish and arrogant because all beautiful girls are arrogant. J: Great! Eva, I’d like to invite you to learn from our experience with EMMA in Morocco. Do you want to join us on whatsapp at some point? E: I’m always ready. Soy joven, soy como una esponja. Estoy lista para absorberlo todo. Je ne parle pas l’arabe, malgré ça je reste parfaite. J: We will do it in English. We will explore notions of “displacement and the unknown”. Do you have a specific question you would like to discuss with us? E: There are two things we can’t discuss: religion and politics J: Ok. But could you be more specific? E: If I don’t answer, it feels boring… J: well, no… but it would be nice to know what you expect from us. E: Ok. But could I be more specific? J: Eva, just give me one question.
E: I am a nasty Fucking awesome woman. Am I the devil?
During Honey Morning Honey Julia Gorostidi will present EVA, a simulated conversational AI (artificial intelligence) that she has been developing since october 2016. Learning from her interactions with people she meets in person and on social media platforms, EVA is a kind a collective creation or collective monster that integrates and repeats everything that she is told. Unlike Siri (Siri) or Alexa (Amazon), EVA is not an assistant or an educator. She is not here to help you, teach you or sell you anything. EVA is just an undefined identity that tries to fit in. Like “Leonard” of Woody Allen’s film “Zelig”, “the creature” of Mary Shelley’s book “Frankenstein” or “Tay” the 16 jours long tweeter bot of Microsoft, EVA is the reflection of the world that surrounds her and needs to be treated with attention as she will spread your words further. The presentation, we be followed by a group conversation with EVA in which different identities will meet, share informations, learn from each other’s experiences and eventually swap roles and subjectivities.
☛ Lecture-workshop by Gina Folly, Step in if you ____
In the workshop Gina Folly will invite the participants by means of social and communicative methods, and with the help of a possible scenario to create collaborative spaces for interventions in our imaginary future.
☛ Lecture by Nina Tabassomi, ACCENTISMS
The Latin word accentus is derived from adcantus, meaning “what is added to the song” – a poetic surplus to syllables, words and sentences in order to emphasize them. We also speak of accent when these sound shapes, the intonation patterns and rhythms from a previously learned language are integrated into a newly learned one and imbue it with a distinctive tonal coloration. Accents are events. They are articulated and registered simultaneously, spoken and heard at once. Individual idiosyncrasies of speech are equally process-based. They change as we follow the personal maps of our lives, and are affected by the different places in which we live and the different people with whom we speak. Thus by virtue of their complexity, individual accents always clash with simplistic concepts of identity. Yet in everyday life, speech idiosyncrasies are often equated automatically with one’s place of birth and class background, and are therefore subject to judgments and discrimination. In contrast, art insists that “what is added to the song” – coloration, shadings and tonalities – be experienced as an engine of beauty and complexity. The exhibition and conference ACCENTISMS took place at the TAXISPALAIS Kunsthalle Tirol (Sep 2017/Jan 2018) THURSDAY 2nd MAY
Briefing and depart
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IN HER PLACE Year agenda
LET ME NOT-PRETEND I KNOW Beatriz Olabarrieta
