Playing on the Wasteland, Living at the Margins - the shoreline people of Douar Koudia
2021
Audio walk, video, zine, spoken word
Collaboration with Alexandra Anzid Kollarova, Laila Safouate, and Dounia Terhmina
Playing on the Wasteland, Living at the Margins is an interdisciplinary project bordering between anthropology and art. It looks into the inner works of the wasteland of Douar el Koudia, located on the border of urban and peri-urban Marrakech. What happens when we shift the focus on the wasteland as a center rather than the margin? When we look at its own inner workings and interactions (or lack thereof) of the people and entities it brings together, rather than interrogating its integration into the larger city? Our aim is to present a perspective where the wasteland and its shoreline people take the central stage - as a place where identities and local cultural meanings are being constantly built, collective solidarity is weaved together, relationships are negotiated between different demographics, where history leaks into the present and where the future still rests, awaiting to transform this place once and for all.
In the framework of Ch[a]rita / السيس , a collaboration between LE 18 (within its programme QANAT) and Dar Bellarj (via the Ateliers Collectifs), in partnership with Mahal Art Space (Tangier), Om Sleiman Farm and Khalil Sakakini Centre (Ramallah), and Afrikaanderwijk Cooperation / jeanneworks (Rotterdam).
From Living to Surviving in the Wasteland Marketplace
Audio walk by Hanne Van Dyck, translated to and narrated in Darija by Mouad Ezzaraa
The text shines a light on the visible and invisible trash and treasures of the waters of the unknown
Zine by Alexandra Anzid Kollarova
an anthropological insight into the dynamics of the research

text performance by Dounia Terhmina
The story of lalla Akioud, who tells her tale through the ages as a place of refuge, transforomation, and play.


Video by Laila Safouate
A day in the wasteland, where the severe reality of the marginalised mingles with the poetics of the daily wasteland routines.