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 co-operation. 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 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