VIDEOKARAVAAN A TALEB CHERCHE MIDI PROJECT

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1 PRESS ARTICLES

2 VIDEOKARAVAAN A TALEB CHERCHE MIDI PROJECT Videokaravaan-Taleb Cherche Midi, is a Media art collective, created in The directors see the project as a Nomadic Program, which, besides producing, it includes a database of video artists from the Arab and North African region. Videokaravaan is traveling through various countries using presentations and discussions to expand the current aesthetics of video and media practices, diversify the Western perspective of art from the Arab world, and to acquaint the West with Arab artists. An additional goal is to generate a network of interdisciplinary cooperation. Since 2002, Videokaravaan initiated a series of Film workshops in Morocco, in order to help local artists and young filmmakers to deal with their own image, and have access to new methods and technologies of filmmaking. Until now more than 20 videos and short films were produced. Videokaravaan is traveling through various countries using presentations, seminars and discussions to expand the current aesthetics of video and media practices, diversify the Western perspective of art from the Arab world, and to acquaint the West with Arab artists. An additional goal is to generate a network of interdisciplinary cooperation. Videokaravaan - Media Art workshop series, Agadir, Morocco 2004 / 2006 Media Art Workshops were not characterized by a one-sided teacher- relationship, but that the learning is much more of a cooperation and give and take. There were about 30 participants, most of them do not stem from the art world and with a few exceptions, were between the ages of 19 and 30 years old. Workshops were not just about learning artistic techniques. The aim was to sensitize the people s vision in general and attentiveness toward everything that is happening around them. We showed art history slides, present works from other artists, recommend books, and talk about them. The training also consisted of arranging exhibitions and includes publishing small catalogues. The seminar leaders encouraged the students to become involved in the activities of the Moroccan Arts Society, and hope that some of them will become curators one day and take part in a better organization and mediation of the country s art life. More than 20 videos were produced during 1st and 2nd edition of Media Art Workshop in Morocco.

3 More than camels and sand: Nomadic art across the Mediterranean Moroccan video artists and film makers Abdelaziz Taleb (1973) and Abdellatif Benfaidoul (1974) have known each other since they were young. Both grew up in the Moroccan coastal city of Agadir, both went on to pursue a career in visual arts, both ended up living and working in Europe, Taleb in Germany, Benfaidoul in the Netherlands. In 2002 they set up Videokaravaan, a nomadic arts project aimed to diversify the Western perspective of art from the Arab world, as well as to stimulate makers in the South to create images in which they recognise themselves. Key words: dialogue and exchange. Everybody wants to know about the other side, the unknown. Literature once represented a key to the other side, but somehow there was a break-up between literature and reality, especially in the Arab world. Contemporary creation, such as video art, which is real-time, now offers a new key to understanding, Benfaidoul explains. What the Arab world needs today is a new language and new media to create a new image, to question Arab identity. Show this in the West and they will understand there is more to the contemporary Arab than camels and sand. According to the Videokaravaan team the diaspora has an important role to play in the dialogue between Europe and the countries of origin.

4 Being Moroccans ourselves, knowing the culture, the language, the background, we are better placed to judge, to interact and to transmit information. We have been there; we were once like those youngsters. It s like a flashback. When we grew up, there were almost no cultural activities in our city. Being based in Europe, Benfaidoul and Taleb have a different perspective on the arts scene in their country of origin. More critical, but also more nostalgic, and with an extensive international network, they are in a position to make a difference. Videokaravaan aims to fill a gap and cater to the needs of a new generation of artists in Morocco. Set up as a series of workshops, the project brings together young North African and European video artists, filmmakers, students and professionals from different spheres of life. Tapping into new sources, Videokaravaan works with everyone who is interested. The participants are selected on the basis of motivation, not necessarily on the basis of experience or academic background. For the workshops in Agadir (taking place in 2004 and 2006), Videokaravaan invited acclaimed artists from Spain, France, Germany and Morocco to host participatory workshops around themes such as the history of cinema and video art, screen play, technology and sound. During the two-week workshop, the 16 participants, aged 20 to 31, male and female, from different ethnic backgrounds, most of whom didn t have any training in the arts, created a number of short films and video installations. Rather than creating a one-sided teacher-student relationship, the process was focused on co-operation, give and take. We believe group work is the only way to get attention and to get people to listen to what you have to say. The workshops are not only about learning techniques for artistic purposes. We want to stimulate the participants to pay attention towards everything happening around them. The international exchange of experience allows the participants, most of whom never had the chance to travel abroad, to find new ways of looking at reality. But Videokaravaan is not only about the process of artistic creation. The ultimate aim of the project is to set up a network and create a multidisciplinary platform for young artists. If we don t invest in the follow-up, the results of the project will be lost. The participants of our workshops continue making videos, being active in the arts. Some of them have had the opportunity to show their work in Europe, such as the 22-year old photographer who participated in the first edition of Videokaravaan. Her work, focusing on the emptiness in urban public space, shows objects and people looking lost in their surroundings. Following her participation in Videokaravaan she was invited by the French Institute to participate in photography workshops in Avignon. And she is not the only artist whose career took off after taking part in Videokaravaan; several other artists have been invited to show their work abroad. We have opened their eyes to lots of new possibilities, not only artistically, but also including very practical things like fundraising. Most importantly, we helped them realise there is more to life than studying to become an engineer or a teacher. In a context where there are no jobs and a serious lack of art schools, projects like ours fill a gap. We offer an alternative. People find out about the workshops through the network of the French Institute, which hosts the workshops, or through flyers distributed in universities and other hotspots around the city.

5 There is always a lot of interest, people had been waiting for us to come back and do a second edition. When we organise public screenings, the venue is packed with people who are thirsty for new input. When we show them the works resulting from our workshops, they are shocked. The images they see are genuine, they represent their reality. There is a huge lack of selfrepresentation there. People are used to seeing images created by others about themselves, now we offer them the opportunity to see their own image. They love it! Not only people in Morocco are surprised when they see the results of the workshops. On the other side of the Mediterranean, audiences are equally amazed when confronted with the videos from Videokaravaan. When we show the results of Videokaravaan at European film festivals, such as the Mediterranean Film Festival of Montpellier, The Short Ends Film Festival in London or La Caixa Art Forum in Barcelona, people are intrigued to discover something new. Most people in the West have only limited knowledge about art from North-Africa. Only after 9/11 did people open their eyes to see what is happening in the Arab world. Especially the fact that there is a vibrant scene of new media artists often comes as a surprise. We create a window to the unknown other side. Enthusiastic audiences, eager participants, positive feedback. What more can Videokaravaan ask for? Are there any challenges left? It is difficult to find local support. So far, our main support has come from European institutions and foundations. Simply because there is no cultural

6 infrastructure in Morocco. That s why the French Institute was happy to work with us, they are eager to work with Moroccan artists instead of Europeans. However, we believe funders can and should do more than simply give money or offer their resources. We apply for a grant, they give us the money, we send the report, and that s it. No dialogue, no distribution of the results of the project. Funders should engage more after the project is over, for example by offering different platforms, discussing the results, facilitating a follow-up. We are so small, comparing to what they can do. They can help us connect with other projects, help us plug into their international network, make sure people know about each other s work. Independent foundations should play that role. We need more than money, we need continuity. So far, we haven t received any local support, other than the French Institute, who offered their space. Recently however, there are some developments in Morocco that indicate that their may be some progress in terms of funding for the arts. Yes, there is hope. There is a general opening to international cooperation in the field of culture. This could be the role of European institutions and foundations, to work in partnership and do something useful and sustainable in the region. The money will most likely still come from Europe, but if the infrastructural support could be provided locally, that would already make a big difference. Recently, Benfaidoul and Taleb have been asked to curate a series of exhibitions of Moroccan artists within the framework of the Troc-Art project, a spin-off of the Dutch project Kunstmarokkanen, taking place in different cities in Morocco. Centred on the theme Cultural Identity, the project aims to show a wide range of contemporary artistic creation, including work of some of the Videokaravaan participants. Benfaidoul is passionate about his work. He points out why projects like Videokaravaan can make such a big difference. People always ask us after the workshops are over: when are you coming back? We work hard to show them that there is more than just black and white, that they actually do have a choice. It is not only about art, it is often also serious social work we do. It could mean the difference between life and death. The people in our workshop could have decided to get on a boat to Europe and end up drowning in the Mediterranean. We give them other options, art gives them hope. Abdellatif Benfaidoul and Abdelaziz Taleb are the initiators of Videokaravaan, a project of Fuondation Taleb Cherche Midi. More information can be found on This portrait was written by Kirsten van den Hul, Amsterdam, February 2007 European Cultural Foundation & Kirsten van den Hul

7 ttp://medreflection.eurocult.org A d i l a L a ï d i - H a n i e h T a m a r a B r a č i č M u l l e r D a i k h a D r i d i I s a b e l l e S c h w a r z B i l j a n a T a n u r o v s k a S o f i a n e H a d j a d j S a m a h H i j a w i D a h o D j e r b a l C l a u d i a Z a n f i L a u r a S r o u j i K h a d i j a E l B e n n a o u i N a t a s h a M u l l i n s M a r i n d e L e ï l a B a d i s H a n n e l o e s W e e d a M a r i e E l i a s F a n y E l i s a T o r r e N a t F e r d i n a n d R i c h a r d H a n a n K a s s a b P i e r r e A b i S a a b N e v e n k a K o p r i v š e k An un A shared reflection on cross-mediterranean cooperation in the arts H u r e n k a m p C a t h e r i n e C o r n e t A b d e l l a t i f B e n f a i d o u l G h i s l a i n e G l a s s o n D e s c h a u m e s L i n a S a n e h S u s a n n e M o r s M a z e n Q u p t y S e l m a Alternative H e l l a l B a s m a E l H u s s e i n y F a n n y B o u q u e r e l Z e i n a A r i d a B e r t a n autre S e l i m R é d a C h i k h i T h o m a s Gaze B u r k h a l t e r K h a l e d H o u r a n i N a t h a l i e G a l e s n e V a n e s s a R e e d regard H a l a G a l a l M i n e K i r i k k a n a t O d i l e C h e n a l C e r e n O y k u t R a n a A b b a w i H a s s a n A b d e l a z i z T a l e b H e n r i k P l a c h t A h m e t P o l a t E y a l D a n o n

8 22 23 An alternative gaze / Chapter 1 Mediterranean, but also from the Balkans recognise traces of these developments in their own countries. A major question is, to what extent is there an alternative, in the Mediterranean region, to the public funding of culture? In Algeria, private investment in culture remains marginal, with the notable exception of music. And this is no coincidence. The music industry brings in short-term profits with little initial outlay. With liberalisation, firms have nonetheless begun to put themselves forward as potential partners for small-scale producers of cultural products, with sponsorship and publicity campaigns. But this type of funding remains too uncertain and unpredictable to give rise to enduring cultural enterprises. For some cultural operators, though, the state remains a source for partnership, without the support of which cultural activity would be seriously endangered. Alternative funding sources and private investment should not replace state funding, but can complement and supplement it, in those areas that miss the boat in regular government funding strategies. Others, however, are more pessimistic about state support. They prefer to develop initiatives along private lines, enjoying the relative freedom of manoeuvre and the lower level of bureaucracy. Basma El Husseiny draws attention to the political dimension of the cultural role of any public sector and how this inevitably affects the status of cultural activity in a country. But, since radically changing the state support system would lead to massive unemployment in the cultural sector, Laila Hourani 15 concludes that NGOs cannot but deal with the state and cannot afford to simply ignore it, by creating a parallel cultural sector. The role of foreign funding Grants for cultural and artistic projects from private foundations and other sources from outside the Mediterranean countries naturally remain a welcome source of funding for many artists and organisations in the Mediterranean region. Such funding allows them to carry out projects for which it may be impossible to find domestic support. However, the manner in which funders hop in and out of the region, disregarding their responsibility for a process they set in motion and fail to sustain, is highly criticised. Moroccan video artists and film makers Abdelaziz Taleb and Abdellatif Benfaidoul 16 gave us the following account: We believe funders can and should do more than simply give money or offer their resources. We apply for a grant, they give us the money, we send the report, and that s it. No dialogue, no distribution of the results of the project. Funders should engage more after the project is over, for example by offering different platforms, discussing the results, facilitating a follow-up. We are able to do so little, compared to what they can do in their position. They can help us connect with other projects, plug us into their international network, make sure people know about each other s work. Independent foundations should play this role. We need more than money, we need continuity. In connection to this, the following question was posed in Alexandria: Should we seek to meet all needs by funding alone, or should we design programmes that can build the community of artists and generate the optimal environment for the practice of art? Responsibility and long-term commitment More long-term commitment should not replace domestic responsibility, but complement it, for example by strengthening and empowering local organisations (capacity building), or by helping to influence policy on the local level. International funders or foundations tend to support visible events, but not the infrastructure which makes them possible. Foundations also tend to base their policies on secondary criteria, such as peace and reconciliation, intercultural exchange, or social integration. They are eager to invest in the region and come with the attitude that they are here to make a change. What do European funders want from Turkey? was a question posed by Ahmet Polat 17 at the meeting in Amsterdam. This leads to an artistic grey area where artistic practices are not valued and supported in their own right, but judged in terms of their social and political impact. In the long run this can be damaging for an independent arts sector in the region. As William Wells 18 said in Amman: We were always talking about the funders in terms of us and them. This is why Townhouse Gallery in Cairo put a great deal of effort into matching international funding with local support, gained by stimulating interest for the gallery s activities outside of the inner artistic circles. One suggestion, put forward by Henrik Placht 19 could be that funders active in arts and culture look more into the practices of development agencies, which generally have longer term human resources capacity building strategies. Funders need to be willing and able to adapt their support strategies according to the needs that differ in each country and in each political situation. If they are not willing to adapt to and engage with the consequences of working in an unstable region, then maybe they should re-consider their engagement in such a region at all, was an opinion voiced in the Amman workshop. 15) Regional manager Creativity and Mutuality of the British Council in Syria. 16) Video artists and film makers, based in the Netherlands. 17) Photographer, based in Istanbul. 18) Founder and director of the Townhouse Gallery in Cairo, Egypt. 19) Initiator and founder of the International Academy of Art, Palestine.

9 des sujets qui ont clairement une résonance locale, qui touchent le cœur des populations de la région méditerranéenne, et pas seulement les publics occidentaux? Une focalisation trop forte sur des événements culturels et artistiques initiés par des acteurs européens crée automatiquement une distance entre ces événements et les publics locaux. C est pourquoi une coopération régionale et locale plus constante dans la préparation des productions sortirait l art de son cadre élitiste et le rapprocherait du grand public. Dans ce paragraphe, Adila Laïdi- Hanieh plaide pour la construction de stratégies de développement du public à long terme, pour des stratégies actives et intégratives. Pour trouver l intégralité de ce chapitre en anglais, vous pouvez visiter 28 Adila Laïdi-Hanieh concludes through her analysis that cooperation tends to take place between the same communities the usual suspects on both sides of the Mediterranean, namely those with a certain level of culture or international orientation. In fact, the content of much contemporary art presupposes a certain level of culture. The style is abstract, ironic, post-modern, minimalist etc. What is being offered, in terms of style, can be quite alien to the general public. In the light of the above disparity between production/art and its audience, Adila produced an analytical paper for the Mediterranean Reflection Process, which discusses the above phenomenon and argues for the build up of long-term, activist, inclusive audience development strategies by way of a commitment to building dynamic and pluralist societies. The text on pages 30 through 33 is a short abstract of this paper, the full version of which can be found on the European Cultural Foundation s website ( eurocult.org).

10 More than camels and sand What the Arab world needs today is a new language and new media to create a new image, to question Arab identity. Show this in the West and they will understand there is more to the contemporary Arab than camels and sand. Abdellatif Benfaidoul Moroccan video artists and film makers Abdelaziz Taleb (1973) and Abdellatif Benfaidoul (1974) have known each other since they were young. Both grew up in the Moroccan coastal city of Agadir, both went on to pursue a career in visual arts, both ended up living and working in Europe, Taleb in Germany, Benfaidoul in the Netherlands. In 2002 they set up Videokaravaan, a nomadic arts project aimed to diversify the Western perspective of art from the Arab world, as well as to stimulate makers in the South to create images in which they recognise themselves. Key words: dialogue and exchange. In 2004 and 2006, the Videokaravaan made pit stops in the Moroccan coastal city of Agadir, to organise two Media Art workshops. In both workshops, around fifteen young participants, aged between 21 and 30, male and female, from different ethnic backgrounds, created a number of short films and video installations, expressing their views on reality. The videos have been shown at European film festivals, surprising audiences with the existence of a vibrant scene of new media artists in the Arab world. We create a window to the unknown other side. Abdellatif Benfaidoul The ECF supported Videokaravaan with two grants in 2004 and For a more detailed portrait of the Videokaravaan, see

11 TransArtists - Pit Stop Morocco Media art workshop in Agadir, Morocco Abdellatif Benfaidoul shares his experience about the Media Art Workshop, which he organised together with artist Abdelaziz Taleb, in Agadir in 2004, as part of their nomadic program 'Videokaravaan'. Participant Media Art Workshop, Agadir St. Talb Cherche Midi/ Videokaravaan 2004 Pit stop Morocco Stimulating Moroccan people to create images in which they recognise themselves: that was the aim of the Media Art Workshop, organised by myself together with Abdelaziz Taleb. Agadir in Southern Morocco doesn't thrive with international exchange in the arts because of its rather isolated position. Therefore this city was a perfect pit stop for our so-called 'Videokaravaan'. Both Moroccan artists, living and working for some time already in the Netherlands and Germany, we set up a nomadic programme, the 'Videokaravaan'. Since 2002 this 'Videokaravaan' has travelled through several countries. By using presentations, seminars and discussions we hope to expand the current aesthetics of video and media practices, to diversify the Western perspective of art coming from the Arab world, and to acquaint the West with Arab artists. An additional goal is to generate a network of interdisciplinary cooperation. And the programme includes also a database of video artists from the Arab and North African region. For our 'pit stop' in Agadir, at the Institut Français, we had asked

12 TransArtists - Pit Stop Morocco other artists to contribute, from Spain, France, Germany and Morocco: Toni Serra, Joachim Montessuis, Alexander Peterhaensel, Nabil Ayouch, Zhor Rehihil, Mounir Fatmi and Bouchra Khalili. But we didn't want a one-sided teacher-student relationship. The learning process was focused on co-operation, give and take. There were 16, mostly young participants. Most of them didn't have any training in the arts, neither did they come from the art world. But the workshops were not just about learning techniques for artistic purposes. The aim was to make vision in general more sensitive, to stimulate the participants to pay attention towards everything happening around them. We showed art history slides, presented works from other artists, recommended books. The workshop also gave a basic training in arranging exhibitions and publishing small catalogues. Hopefully some of the attendants even will become curators one day and take part in a better organisation and mediation of the country s art life, possibly through the Moroccan Arts Society. The result: 6 videos directed. For us this was a great success, and to be honest we hadn't expect so many works and ideas. Since then we've shown the works produced during the Media Art Workshop on several festivals and artistic happenings, among them the experimental section of the 26th Mediterranean Film Festival of Montpellier, in France, and La Cuenca Forum about Moroccan Arts and Literature, in Spain. Now we created a platform which already got recognition. This also turned out to be a huge responsibility! People asked: What about establishing such a workshop annually, as a festival? Back to Agadir once more? Yes, we are ready for it. Abdellatif Benfaidoul Abdellatif Benfaidoul and Abdelaziz Taleb are the initiators of Videokaravaan - Foundation Taleb Cherche Midi All photos St. Talb Cherche Midi / Videokaravaan 2004

13 Video workshop in Morocco gives people a look at themselves The Power of Culture The Power of Culture Video workshop in Morocco gives people a look at themselves May How do the new media influence contemporary Moroccan art? And how can this art play a part in social change in this society? These questions were the starting point for the Media Art Workshop, held from 12 to 24 April 2004 in the Institut Français in Agadir, Morocco. The workshop was organised by artists Abdellatif Benfaidoul, former resident at the Amsterdam Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, and Aziz Taleb, both of whom live in Europe. Together these artists form the Taleb Cherche Midi collective. People who live in Agadir, which is situated de-centrally, are not often confronted with other ways of thinking and living. Because they have virtually no way to compare themselves with others, they also lack a clear image of who they themselves are. In turn this means that they can also exert little influence on the way in which they are seen in the rest of Morocco and elsewhere. According to the project description, the workshop intended 'to give the people of Agadir the feeling that they are part of a process in which they can create their own image of themselves'. During the workshop, public presentations of varying video art pieces were given during five evenings. There were also workshops during which professional artists shared their know-how with semiprofessional artists and students. Toni Serra, Joachim Montessuis, Mabil Ayouch, Zhor Rehihi and Alexander Peterhaensel were among the professionals who gave workshops. The themes discussed included non-linear mounting and the history of film and video. The idea for the media workshops originated in the Video Caravan, a mobile exposition of Moroccan video art that visited Dordrecht, the Netherlands, and Cologne, Germany in With this mobile exposition, Taleb Cherche Midi wanted to establish links between Moroccans living in Europe and Moroccan artists in Morocco. The video workshop in Morocco is the first in a series of activities intended to enrich the art platform in Agadir. Until now the opportunities for (video) artists there were relatively limited. The Media Art workshop was supported by the European Cultural Foundation, the Stichting Doen foundation, the Prince Claus fund, the Hubert Bals Fund, the Institut Français in Agadir and the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten/rain network. Gertrude Flentge

14 Press Videokaravaan 2002, Nederlands

15 De Dordtenaar 06 /09 / 2002

16 Stem van Dordt 18 /09/2002

17 De Dordtenaar 20 /09 / 2002 Videokaravaan 2003 LACAIXA FORUM, BARCELONA SPAIN

18 ELMUNDO 08/12/2003 ELPais 08/12/

19 "VideoKaravaan 2003: A Nomadic Programme" until Caixa Art Forum Barcelona,, ES Spain VIDEOKARAVAAN is a nomadic programme and database on video directors from Arab and North African countries who have joined together to connect and spread the works of young creators with an aim to move to different cities and countries in order to broaden traditional Aesthetic of Video and Media representations, and aslo to bring a contageous spirit of innovation to it s public. In addition they aim to diversify and deepen the traditional artistic view of the western audience towards Arab art, to provide a platform for Arab artists to gain more exposure. It is also a starting point of a long term project, whose purpose is to facilitate the circulation, communication between different representations in order to create networks of interdisciplinary collaborations. Videokaravaan project is structured around particulary themes and have a clear purpose: to encourage a critique of contemporary culture, using different strategies: Video art, Video installations, independant documentary, and mass media archaeology. The VIDEOKARAVAAN Project is curated by Abdelaziz Taleb and Abdellatif Benfaidoul: Video makers, programmers and founders of the TALEB CHERCHE MIDI collective (Cologne-Amsterdam based videomakers and programmers collective). Videokaravaan 2004 / Media Art Workshop AGADIR, Morocco 2004 " Media Arts Workshop " Agadir, Avril 2004 Le projet "Media Art Workshop" consiste en un atelier intensif de deux semaines qui interrogera la façon dont les médias numériques informent et font évoluer le langage visuel dans l expression artistique contemporaine marocaine. Videokaravaan Agadir-Morocco Ce questionnement intègrera également une réflexion autour de la place offerte à l'art dans les sphères intimes et sociales. Une forte participation d artistes de renommée mondiale offriront leur contribution à cet échange. Cela sera, pour les artistiques locaux et les étudiants en art, une occasion unique pour enrichir leurs connaissances théoriques et pratiques en Art-Média. Le projet développera des réflexions tant théorique que pratique. En effet, les participants auront non seulement une introduction aux techniques de la production audiovisuelle, mais également la possibilité de créer un travail vidéo. Media Art Workshop Agadir est un projet de Abdelaziz Taleb et Abdellatif Benfaidoul ( Taleb Cherche Midi ) en collaboration avec la Fondation Européenne de la Culture, l Institut francais d Agadir, Prince Claus Fund, Hubert Bals Fund, et le Rijksakademie Amsterdam.

20 Du 12 au 24 avril 2004, la ville d Agadir accueillera le grand projet «Media Art Workshop». Ce dernier vise pendant deux semaines à informer le grand public sur les médias numériques et le langage visuel dans l art contemporain marocain. Cet atelier exposera, également, plusieurs réflexions autour de la place offerte à l'art dans les milieux sociaux et artistiques. Pendant ces journées, le public d Agadir, aura l occasion de voir et de connaître une multitude d artistes de renommée mondiale qui offriront leur contribution et leur savoir-faire à cet échange. Media Art Workshop, est une occasion spéciale et très enrichissante pour les étudiants en art et les artistiques locaux afin d enrichir leurs pratiques en Art-Média et leurs cultures théoriques. Ainsi, ce projet développera différentes idées, pratiques ou théoriques. De ce fait, les participants auront l opportunité de créer un travail vidéo et pas uniquement une introduction aux techniques audiovisuelles. Le projet Media Art Workshop d Agadir est à l initiative d Abdelaziz Taleb et Abdellatif Benfaidoul, en collaboration avec l institut français d Agadir, la Fondation Européenne de la Culture Au programme de cet événement, il y aura, aussi, des ateliers théoriques et pratiques animés par des professionnels, des installations vidéo, ainsi que des projections de plusieurs oeuvres de différents artistes participant. Media Arts Workshop La ville d Agadir accueil du 12 au 24 Avril 2004 le "Media Art Workshop" un atelier intensif de deux semaines qui «interrogera la façon dont les médias numériques informent et font évoluer le langage visuel dans l expression artistique contemporaine marocaine,» explique un communiqué des organisateurs de cette manifestation qui ambitionne de porter "une réflexion autour de la place offerte à l'art dans les sphères intimes et sociales" Cette manifestation sera marquée par la participation de plusieurs artistes marocains et étrangers de renommée mondiale ainsi que des étudiants en art média au Maroc. Une occasion unique pour enrichir leurs connaissances théoriques et pratiques et d échange. Les participants dans cet atelier profiteront non seulement d une introduction aux techniques de la production audiovisuelle, mais également de la possibilité de créer un travail vidéo. Aux programme de cette manifestation des ateliers théoriques et pratiques animés par les artistes Toni Serra, Mounir Fami, Bouchra Khalili, Jonas Raeber, Abdellatif Benfaidoul, Aziz Taleb... des projections d'une sélection des ouvres des différents artistes participant ainsi que des installations vidéo. Media Art Workshop Agadir est un projet de Abdelaziz Taleb et Abdellatif Benfaidoul (Taleb Cherche Midi) en collaboration avec la Fondation Européenne de la Culture, l Institut français d Agadir, Prince Claus Fund, Hubert Bals Fund, et le Rijksakademie Amsterdam.

21 Video workshop in Morocco gives people a look at themselves. How do the new media influence contemporary Moroccan art? And how can this art play a part in social change in this society? These questions were the starting point for the Media Art Workshop, held from 12 to 24 April 2004 in the Institut Français in Agadir, Morocco. The workshop was organised by artists Abdellatif Benfaidoul, former resident at the Amsterdam Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, and Aziz Taleb, both of whom live in Europe. Together these artists form the Taleb Cherche Midi collective. People who live in Agadir, which is situated de-centrally, are not often confronted with other ways of thinking and living. Because they have virtually no way to compare themselves with others, they also lack a clear image of who they themselves are. In turn this means that they can also exert little influence on the way in which they are seen in the rest of Morocco and elsewhere. According to the project description, the workshop intended to give the people of Agadir the feeling that they are part of a process in which they can create their own image of themselves. During the workshop, public presentations of varying video art pieces were given during five evenings. There were also workshops during which professional artists shared their know-how with semi-professional artists and students. Toni Serra, Joachim Montessuis, Mabil Ayouch, Zhor Rehihi and Alexander Peterhaensel were among the professionals who gave workshops. The themes discussed included non-linear mounting and the history of film and video. The idea for the media workshops originated in the Video Caravan, a mobile exposition of Moroccan video art that visited Dordrecht, the Netherlands, and Cologne, Germany in With this mobile exposition, Taleb Cherche Midi wanted to establish links between Moroccans living in Europe and Moroccan artists in Morocco. The video workshop in Morocco is the first in a series of activities intended to enrich the art platform in Agadir. Until now the opportunities for (video) artists there were relatively limited. The Media Art workshop was supported by the European Cultural Foundation, the Stichting Doen foundation, the Prince Claus fund, the Hubert Bals Fund, the Institut Français in Agadir and the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten/rain network. Médias La ville d Agadir accueille du jusqu au 24 Avril 2004 le Media Art Workshop" un atelier intensif de deux semaines, qui interrogera la façon dont les médias numériques informent et font évoluer le langage visuel dans l expression artistique contemporaine marocaine. Cette manifestation ambitionne de porter une réflexion autour de la place offerte à l'art dans les sphères intimes et sociales".