How did this grant contribute to the realization of your project in regard to artistic exchange, local cultural development and/or the promotion of cultural diversity?

My activity articulates theoretical, aesthetic and social concerns. This grant offered the possibility of visiting places and meeting agents in person. This lead to a joint understanding the research potential of the activity beyond its initial framework. Key site visits in the company of the local project leader and colleagues revealed the relevance and implications of pursuing these potentials locally in South Morocco, as well as their significance to current stagnated debates within the Arts and Humanities in Europe. These debates are, inevitably and systematically, overlaid onto non-Western art/research circuits, such as the African.

How does exchange, networking and international contacts contribute to the development of your artistic and cultural project?

My project seeks to derive a form of critique (theoretical, spatial, aesthetic, political) from non-modern systems of learning. Contact with tribal societies is crucial.

Can you elaborate on the learning and knowledge you have gained and shared throughout this experience?

This was a preparation trip to set up a long term yearly activity. I learned about the significance of the actual confluence of the religious, political, scientific into one system of knowledge. This trip was planned to coincide with the Annual Moussem, which gathers all Saharian tribes in Assa. This meeting correlates religious, political, scientific and celebratory concerns over several days. Part of this was an international conference on sustainability where I was kindly invited to participate. Our exchanges started then by confronting political and scientific concerns by way o theory. Our presentation concerned the water in the landscape as a source of law and order. This exchange was productive in taking our investigation further. The following days were dedicated to learning abut the local desert landscape and the social nomadic and semi-nomadic spaces that emerge from it. We learned about the desert as a medium, the Oases and the kinds of technologies this physical space gives place to. A last meeting on the way to the Casablanca airport clarified and opened up solid lines of investigation.