The film trilogy “Tétouan, Tetuán, تطوان” examines the traces left behind by the colonial past in Morocco within Spanish society by using a collaborative methodology that addresses both cultural production and public space, as well as the collective imaginary. Filmed in three cities by holding dialogue with Moroccan and Spanish cultural role-players, each episode explores narrative strategies used to re-signify places such as the Plaça de Tetuan in Barcelona, the neighborhood of Tetuán de las Victorias in Madrid and the Cine Teatro Español in Morocco. Peppered with readings, songs, stories and informal conversations at the foot of monuments, in streets, cafés and museums, the project upholds the idea that oral tradition provides a way to resist hegemonic discourses and favors the emergence of new imaginaries. 

The first episode (2021, 33 min.), filmed in Barcelona in 2021, focuses on the involvement of representation in power relations and the survival of Orientalist and colonial iconographies, especially in today’s audiovisual productions, thus allowing us to reflect upon the way roles are cast and the mechanisms of film itself. In the second episode (2023, 30 min.), shot in Madrid this year, the film deals with silenced historical events, their sociocultural repercussions and forms of resistance created through song and music. Focusing mainly on historical songs (in classical Arabic, Darija and Tarifit), the film highlights the role which this immaterial form of protest has played in anti-colonial endeavors. At the same time constituting a valuable document to pass on these events from the Moroccan and Rifian points of view, the letters offer us essential ways to take a fresh look at Madrid’s public space, its place names and its monuments. 

After the screenings, there will be a colloquium with the participation of the director Adrian Schindler, who will be accompanied by Fátima Bourhim Mesaoudi, Nouhad Boudih (La Guardia Mora), Huda Laamarti and Juan Valero (Sono Mayrit), as well as Elisa and Andrea Celda (Lejos lejos, the trilogy’s producers), Caterina Monzani (editor of the trilogy) and Aicha Trinidad Gououi (an artist and researcher, and chronicler of Episode 2). 

You can watch the colloquium live on Casa Árabe’s YouTube channel. 

Adrian Schindler is a Franco-German artist and filmmaker based in Spain since 2014. His work addresses the ties between historical events, cultural production and state ideology, emphasizing their effects on subjective viewpoints. Often collaborative, his work takes the form of performance art, movies, installations and public happenings. He has taken part in exhibitions and screenings at MACBA, Barcelona; La Casa Encendida, Madrid; Collection Lambert, Avignon; The Green Parrot, Barcelona; Cineteca, Madrid; FID, Marseille; Young Curators Research Program - Fondazione Sandretto, Madrid; La Grande Halle de La Villette, Paris and La Capella, Barcelona, along with others. He has presented performance art pieces, talks and meetings at the Ludwig Forum, Aachen (DE); FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims; Centre d’art Le Lait, Albi (FR); Mahal Art Space, Tangier; Collège des Bernardins, Paris; Empathy&Risk, London; Espositivo, Madrid and Fabra i Coats, Barcelona. He has also received grants from La Fondation des Artistes, the La Caixa Foundation, the Municipal Government of Madrid, Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Acción Cultural Española and the Autonomous Regional Government of Catalonia’s Department of Culture . His artist-in-residency programs have included UNIDEE Residency Programs at Cittadellarte, Biella (IT); Matadero Madrid; Casa de Velázquez, Madrid; Château Nour, Brussels; Le Centquatre, Paris; ZK/U, Berlin and Superdeals, Brussels. He earned his Master’s degree at the Institute for Art in Context - UdK Berlin, another Master’s degree at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and he studied performance art at the Columbia College and School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Since 2013, he has regularly collaborated with the artist Eulàlia Rovira.