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A conversation on African presence and invisibility (FRENCH)
Round table discussion hosted at Casa Árabe, as part of the program "Entretanto" and the exhibition "Moroccan Trilogy," organized by Casa Árabe the cooperation of MNCARS and Medialab Prado.
You can also watch the meeting on our Youtube channel: youtu.be/6a_wA8SBKVw
North Africa, like any other place in the world, poses challenges around the concept of identity, as a monolithic entity which determines who belongs to or comes from a specific place. However, as elsewhere in the world, the fiction of a homogeneous, harmonious identity that embraces and confers consistency to a narrative of community or nation can easily dispense with lifestyles, colors, viewpoints and traditions which go beyond the limits of the imaginary through which nations and peoples see themselves, thus causing tensions.
Examining the contradictions that others experience when they are forced to look at themselves can help us come to terms with our own contradictions. From one side of the Straits of Gibraltar to the other, identities which are non-existent, which are much less than the truly existing array, create a game of smoke and mirrors that loses meaning when their surface reveals that a mosaic is actually present. When gazed at closely, geographic and demographic maps fail to uphold either the imaginary of the South or that of the North. Seen very much up-close, the pieces in this mosaic are far more permeable and provocative. They tell a far greater story than the identity fictions which block a clearer view of the landscape.
Since its independences, Morocco has privileged the Arab-Muslim identity, leaving aside other features of its culture and geography. To the north, Spain accommodates this Arab-Muslim identity as part of the Moorish imaginary, an otherness from which the country can dissociate and compare itself, in order to define itself as the European counterpart. The opposition is neverending, but neither South nor North are so different, and neither country is the way it likes to imagine. Other bodies, other experiences and other memories inhabit the territories of the present and timeless tales, thus challenging the vantage points looming over peoples without ever setting foot on the ground to see who truly inhabits and comprises these places.
Further information: https://en.casaarabe.es/event/entretanto#15070
Photo: Mbarek
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By Casa ÁrabeRound table discussion hosted at Casa Árabe, as part of the program "Entretanto" and the exhibition "Moroccan Trilogy," organized by Casa Árabe the cooperation of MNCARS and Medialab Prado.
You can also watch the meeting on our Youtube channel: youtu.be/6a_wA8SBKVw
North Africa, like any other place in the world, poses challenges around the concept of identity, as a monolithic entity which determines who belongs to or comes from a specific place. However, as elsewhere in the world, the fiction of a homogeneous, harmonious identity that embraces and confers consistency to a narrative of community or nation can easily dispense with lifestyles, colors, viewpoints and traditions which go beyond the limits of the imaginary through which nations and peoples see themselves, thus causing tensions.
Examining the contradictions that others experience when they are forced to look at themselves can help us come to terms with our own contradictions. From one side of the Straits of Gibraltar to the other, identities which are non-existent, which are much less than the truly existing array, create a game of smoke and mirrors that loses meaning when their surface reveals that a mosaic is actually present. When gazed at closely, geographic and demographic maps fail to uphold either the imaginary of the South or that of the North. Seen very much up-close, the pieces in this mosaic are far more permeable and provocative. They tell a far greater story than the identity fictions which block a clearer view of the landscape.
Since its independences, Morocco has privileged the Arab-Muslim identity, leaving aside other features of its culture and geography. To the north, Spain accommodates this Arab-Muslim identity as part of the Moorish imaginary, an otherness from which the country can dissociate and compare itself, in order to define itself as the European counterpart. The opposition is neverending, but neither South nor North are so different, and neither country is the way it likes to imagine. Other bodies, other experiences and other memories inhabit the territories of the present and timeless tales, thus challenging the vantage points looming over peoples without ever setting foot on the ground to see who truly inhabits and comprises these places.
Further information: https://en.casaarabe.es/event/entretanto#15070
Photo: Mbarek