DAI Confluence nr. 4 ~ Essaouira, Morocco. April 17 till 27, 2024
Dear all,
With this bulletin we want to update you on how we are faring in Morocco, where for the duration of the DAI's 4th confluence of this academic year, the small, wind-swept yet warm and welcoming city of Essaouira is the seat of learning for our students, faculty and guests. Teaming with life in a myriad of facets, contemporary Essaouira reflects a long splintered history of exchanges and intersections between creeds, cultures and continents. To bask in the glow of some past and present, celebrated or not yet fully celebrated, multiculturalisms of the African continent, is a blessing, particularly at this current catatonic moment for the world.
As program for study and research, we are outraged by Israel's violent and total destruction of all schools and universities in Gaza: according to the United Nations special rapporteur 625.000 young people are currently deprived of any form of education. We are also deeply concerned about those academic colleagues worldwide, who are speaking truth to power and have consequently been denied access to international platforms for discussion and exchange of knowledge. For example, Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, the recently appointed Glasgow University rector and plastic surgeon was held at the German border and prevented from traveling to Berlin for a conference about Palestine, while Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, an esteemed professor who teaches in the departments of criminology and social work at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Global Chair in Law at Queen Mary University of London, has been arrested. We stand in solidarity with them, as well as with the growing number of rallying students and young artists, who, from Columbia University in the United States to the Venice Biennale in Italy are true agents of change.
From the art world in Venice back to worlding in Essaouira: the warm and supportive welcome given to the DAI by Kaoutar Chakir of Cultural Centre Dar Souiri Association Essaouira Mogador and by Ghita Rabouli of House of Memory Bayt Dakira fills us with joy. We deeply appreciate their commitment to interfaith dialogue, heritage and cultural exchange (under the protection of Mr. André Azoulay, to whom we extend our heartfelt gratitude).
We furthermore thank the Institut français d'Essaouira as well as a wide variety of hospitable people at private spaces, most notably Hayat Ennachiri and Jean Gabriel Nucci of Ryad Watier: without their tireless support our landing here would not have been possible.
Flashback to mid March 2020: hosted in Sidi Bou Said, by our alumna, curator Aziza Harmel, DAI students and tutors were first introduced to the Sufi spiritual traditions of North Africa during the unforgettable Roaming Assembly#27 Force Times Distance - On Labour and its Sonic Ecologies, convened by our then partner sonsbeek20-24 with artistic director Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung and invited curator Beya Othmani. While we danced till dawn to the rythm of the krakebs, the world woke up, frozen in the nightmare of the global pandemic which brought our confluence in Tunisia to a panic stricken, premature ending.
Fast forward to what Fatima-Zahra Lakrissa calls “Fluid Now”: DAI returns to the Maghreb to pick up some threads. Aziza Harmel travels from Tunis to Essaouira to write a reflection on a collaboration between DAI and LE18 from Marrakech. Laila Hida (LE18 founding member, artist and cultural worker interested in exploring the structures and dynamics underlying systems of representation and belief through the production of images) is the convener of Roaming Assembly#31, our open-to-the-public symposium. On the 23th of April we will listen to, move with, and learn from diverse forms of transmission and languages that can or cannot be understood or apprehended. From the cryptic style of protest poetry of the Ghiwanes to the lament of the Aita singers; words, tones, and ritual spaces serve as transmitters of subtle and encoded messages of a fragmented history:
Roaming Assembly#31 The Seven Colours of the Universe
With warmth and oceanic greetings from Essaouira,
Gabriëlle Schleijpen, artistic director / head of program
FROM DAY TO DAY (including the names of all tutors and guests)
DAI Confluence nr.4 ~ April 17 till 27, 2024 ~
The four curriculum components HTDTWT, COOP, The Kitchen and WEAVER are elaborately introduced in our Syllabus 2023-2024
WEDNESDAY April 17
At the core of each confluence is of course, as always,
the amazing input of our entire student body.
Today: arrival of the students in Essaouira
*
THURSDAY April 18
Opening lecture by
Nadia Bouras: The Social and Political Fabric of Present-day Morocco, with a specific focus on Essaouira.
WEAVER program of April 18, 2024
*
April 19-20-21
We welcome our theory tutors
Mayra A. Rodríguez Castro, Dr. Ana Teixeira Pinto, Dr.Amit S. Rai, Dr. Ghalya Saadawi, Dr. Grant Watson and Dr. Hypatia Vourloumis and their guest Júlia Nueno
to Essaouira
FRIDAY April 19
HTDTWT program of April 19, 2024
*
SATURDAY April 20
This morning at 10.15 the HTDTWT tutors
will host Palestine Teach Out#3
HTDTWT program for the rest of April 20, 2024
*
SUNDAY April 21
HTDTWT program of April 21, 2024
*
MONDAY April 22
This Kitchen iteration welcomes Aziza Harmel and Yvon Langué who are to share their improvised responses and reflections on 10 student presentations with the presenters and performers and with the student body at large. Elisa Giuliano will return to our midst to further engage on a series face to face conversations with 2nd year presenters in preparation of the AEROPONIC ACTS 2024.
KITCHEN program of April 22, 2024
*
TUESDAY April 23
Today we warmly welcome
Gilles Aubry, Ghassan El Hakim, Badreddine Haoutar, Laila Hida, Fatima-Zahra Lakrissa, Yvon Langué, Amine Nawny/Cheika Warda and Bouchra Ouizguen (together with Milouda El Maataoui, Kabboura Aït Ben Hmadand Halima Sahmoud).
They will all be contributing to our OPEN -TO-THE-PUBLIC event
Roaming Assembly#31 ~ The Seven Colors of the Universe
*
April 24-25-26
We welcome our COOP tutors and their guests
Laila Sit Aboha, Noor Abuarafeh, Lilia Di Bella, Frédérique Bergholtz, Marina Christodoulidou, Jurga Daubaraitė, Chiara Figone, Samira Ghoualmia, Hamid El Kanbouhi, Dr.Snejanka Mihaylova, Iman Salem, Dr.Leire Vergara, Dr. Grant Watson and Jonas Žukauskas
to Essaouira.
This year's COOP partnerships are with If I Can't Dance I Don't Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution (Amsterdam), Bulegoa z/b (Bilbao), Neringa Forest Architecture (Nida), ARCHIVE (Berlin, Dakar, Milan), de Appel Amsterdam (Amsterdam).
WEDNESDAY April 24
*
THURSDAY April 25
*
FRIDAY April 26
*
SATURDAY April 27
*
DAI crew present In Essaouira:
*artistic director| head of program: Gabriëlle Schleijpen
*education leader HTDTWT: Florian Göttke
*education leader COOP: Nikos Doulos
*senior production leader Roaming Academy & facilitator technical support to students and tutors: Peter Sattler.
*senior co-ordinator logistics & production Roaming Academy | emergency response certificate holder: Jacq van der Spek
* hospitality manager Kastė Šeškevičiūtė.
*archive and documentation: Baha Görkem Yalim
*student assistant Foad Alijani (DAI, 2025): photo-documentation on location.
*culinary input by Myriam Taouriri.
Back Office (remotely)
* travel agent Monique Hemmink (Hemminkways), *Friends & Family booklets, student pages and more: Ricardo Liong-A-Kong, *web-support, student assistant Anastasia Nefedova (DAI, 2024).* house style and communication design Lauren Alexander & Hanna Rullmann,* bookkeeper Corine van der Wal and *admissions co-ordinator Marika Vandekraats.
Students: WHO TO CONTACT; WHEN AND ABOUT WHAT ?
INFORMATION
Medical assistance & info in case of an EMERGENCY: dial 150
Overview LOCATIONS: Accommodation/Classes/Venues