Special programs

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Entretanto 

From March 01, 2021 until September 30, 2021
MADRID
Consult locations, dates and times for each activity.

As part of the exhibition "Moroccan Trilogy: Art and culture in Morocco from 1950-2020", the Reina Sofia Museum, Casa Árabe and Medialab Prado are organizing "Entretanto," a series of workshop, meetings and debates.  


This event series will focus on what happens in that in-between time (“Entretanto”) that takes place between the three periods making up the exhibition, with a special emphasis on the present and on the artistic and collective rearguards that exist in its main cities. This proposal has been curated by Susana Moliner, of Grigri Projects, with the cooperation of the Public Activities Department of MNCARS, and in conjunction with Casa Árabe and Medialab Prado. 

Over a period of six months, a series of activities will be carried out with the goal of getting to know and questioning the complexity of Morocco’s contemporary reality by holding talks with artists and creators from this country.
 
The “Entretanto” series not only intends to offer a set of activities which spur thought and provide a context for the “Moroccan Trilogy“ event, but also to create a way to activate and articulate networks between the guest cultural agents from Morocco and the local communities.  

It is an attempt to produce a constellation of knowledge and complicity before, during and after each of the activities, in order to weave together a fabric of recognition between the two shores in the present.                

Lying amid two seas, a gateway to the continent of Africa located in the Arab world territory farthest from the cradle of the Muslim religion, Morocco has been the only country in the region after the Arab Spring and its own February 20, 2011 movement, not only to have retained its status quo and its model of governance revolving around the figure of the king, but also to have seen this power reinforced through a process of physical and economic change based on the construction of motorways, the building of high-speed railways, the opening of large shopping malls, the creation of luxury resorts and the development of river and port megaprojects.

At the same time as these large-scale metamorphoses -and the rapid demographic transition that has accompanied them, with a huge increase in the population moving from the countryside to the city-, a series of protest movements and a network of new art spaces and circuits are springing up in this country, thus questioning these processes of growth and development, and the effects they have on inequality and overlapping social and economic realities that can lead to severe identity-related tension.            

Morocco has reached an “in-between time” which this event series hopes to examine and welcome through the proposals and voices of different artists, creators and thinkers, with their multidisciplinary, independent and contemporary artistic forms of expression ranging between the invisible, the mystical, the ironic, the digital and the commonplace.

Thus, a series of spaces will be provided to discuss the tensions existing in this territory of transition, between inside and outside, between the social mask and the intimacy of relationships woven despite moral conventions; the potential for recovering other veiled or ignored pasts, conversations to reflect upon the ways in which Moroccan creators work to construct possibility and meaning, gathering and hybridizing knowledge and customs, opening up paths to acknowledge the diverse forms of love and self-expression, using domestic stories as a foundation for the universal, while imagining the mystical as a possible way to reformulate the ties between urban and social realms.

  • Domestic constellations workshop

    From March 04, 2021 until March 27, 2021The workshop will be held on Saturday, March 27, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe headquarters (at Calle Alcalá, 62). The workshop will be held on Saturday, March 27, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. You must sign up in advance, which will be possible soon on this website.
    In Spanish.
    On March 27, Mohammed Larbi Rahhali will be conducting this session organized by Casa Árabe as part of the event series "Entretanto" and the exhibition "Moroccan Trilogy," with the cooperation of MNCARS and Medialab Prado. SOLD OUT.
    At this workshop, we will get to learn more about Mohammed Larbi Rahhali’s universe. He is an an artist who, through elements as heterogeneous as fishing nets, matchboxes intervened with meticulous drawings and other small objects linked to everyday life, is able to connect different scales of representation ranging from the domestic stories from the ‘medina’ of his city, Tetouan, to the countless constellations which crisscross the sky we all share. A material universe that makes it possible to create several dimensions of meaning in the world we inhabit.

    
At this session, we will get the opportunity to build small installations, in a dialogue with the artist, in which each workshop participant designs a constellation of his or her own universe, based on the everyday materials that they contribute for the session. It is a workshop to think about ourselves, create bonds and perform self-portrayal through the objects surrounding us and with which we co-exist.



    This workshop is being held within the framework of the schedule of activities taking place in conjunction with “Entretanto,” which forms part of the exhibition “Moroccan Trilogy: Art and culture in Morocco” intended to give us a closer look at the art and culture of that country during the time period from 1956 to 2020. 

    

“Entretanto” includes a series of workshops, meetings and debates held by the Reina Sofia Museum, Casa Arabe and Medialab Prado about what happens in that “In-between” space (“Entretanto”) that is created amid the three time periods forming the exhibition, with a special emphasis on the present, and on the artistic and collective rearguards operating in its main cities. This proposal has been curated by Susana Moliner, of Grigri Projects, with the cooperation of the Public Activities Department of MNCARS, and in conjunction with Casa Árabe and Medialab Prado.



    To take part in the workshop, participants will be required to contribute a few everyday objects which they feel are representative of their personal identity and can be used as material for the temporary installation to be created.



    Mohamed Larbi Rahhali was born in 1956 in Tetouan, where he now lives and works. He graduated from that city’s Fine Arts School in 1984. His work is deeply influenced by his trade as a fisherman and his daily life in the ‘medina’ of Tetouan. His installations intermix the disciplines of cosmology, esoterics and symbolism linked to folk tales and the mutual assistance which people continue to give each other in his neighborhood. The work also highlights his reflections upon the collective memory shared by Morocco and Spain, and the testimony of this colonial history. His work has been displayed at the following group exhibitions: “Elsewhere,” New Museum, New York (2015), Sous nos yeux part.3, MACBA, Barcelona, ​​Spain (2015), Sous nos yeux Part.2, Kunsthalle centre d’art contemporain, Mulhouse, France (2013 ).
     

  • Instant composition workshop: “I Am Here”

    From June 14, 2021 until July 08, 2021The workshop will be held on the dates of July 7, 8 and 9 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm (12 class hours).
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe headquarters (at Calle Alcalá, 62). The workshop will be held on the dates of July 7, 8 and 9 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm (12 class hours). Prior registration required. Limited attendance. Those interested must attend all of the workshop sessions.
    Register by following this link.
    In Spanish.
    On July 7, 8 and 9, Casa Árabe has organized this workshop to be given by Nezha Rhondali, as part of the event series “Entretanto” consisting of activities held in conjunction with the exhibition “Moroccan Trilogy: 1950-2020,” which can currently be seen at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid. Registration now open.
    Each of our body’s movements changes the space we occupy. The waving of a hand or an arm, all the joints which make up our presence, allow us to create infinite ways of inhabiting urban space.

    This workshopis intended for everyone interested in experiencing the different ways of “being here.” French-Moroccan dancer Nezha Rhondali will guide us through a process to recognize the dialogue that takes place between the self and the individual, the self with others and the self within space. Each day during the workshop, we will focus on one of the three interconnections of the SELF. The sessions will be taught in an immersive manner so that all of the participants can find their own space for expression and sharing. The workshop is open to all audiences. Participation requires no prior training in dance or theater. A final show will be created on the basis of this shared experience and will be taking place in Casa Árabe’s outdoor space on Friday, July 9 at 8:30 p.m. This final performance will be based on a script, but will remain loyal to feeling of the present moment and improvisation.

    IMPORTANT: Those taking part in the workshop will be performing the final show in the outdoor space in front of the audience in the street with Nezha Rondhali.

    Nezha Rhondali is a French-Moroccan dancer. Her research and artistic production focus on studying improvisation in dance. Nezha uses different somatic techniques as tools of expression, as well as for bodily, social and political liberation. She has trained with highly acclaimed teachers and taken part in artist-in-residency programs, including the prestigious Earthdance program in Massachusetts. In 2014, she founded the dance company “Irtijal Maroc,” through which she carries out various experimental projects.

    Download and share the information sheet for this workshop

  • A dialogue between Abdellah Karroum and Driss Ksikes. "Around and through three times" 

    September 15, 20217:00 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:00 p.m. .  In order to attend this event in person, you must sign up in advance. Mask use required.
    Register using this form.   
    In French, with simultaneous translation into Spanish.
    This activity, which forms part of the  Entretanto event series, will be taking place on September 15  at the Casa Árabe headquarters in Madrid. Sign up now to attend. 
    At this event, coinciding with the end of the  exhibition “Moroccan Trilogy," we will be taking stock of the ability held by artistic creativity to affect and enable new ways of sensing the collective and, in particular, how this has taken place within the context of contemporary Moroccan society.  
     
    Through a dialogue between Abdellah Karroum, the exhibition curator, and playwright and thinker Driss Ksikes, we will perform an overview of the cultural ecosystems that emerge from and pervade three periods proposed by Karroum in this exhibition of contemporary Moroccan art at the Reina Sofia Museum, ranging from the transition to independence (1950-1969), then what were known as the “Years of Lead” (1970-1999), followed by the period lasting up to the present (2000-2020). 
     
    The event will be conducted by Susana Moliner, curator of the “Entretanto” event series, in which we hope to provide a path towards a collection about what took place and what remains from these three periods in the “Moroccan Trilogy” exhibition at present, within a context of global fragility and uncertainty, reviving the emancipating and transformative aspects that have been triggered by artistic practices occuring in Morocco. 

    Driss Ksikes  (1968, Casablanca) is a researcher, writer and literary critic. He directs “Economia,” an interdisciplinary research center at the Institut des Hautes Études de Management in Rabat, where he is a professor of Media and Culture. Prior to that, he was the editor of the magazine Telquel  and director of the Arabic language magazine Nichane. He has been greatly involved in the organization of cultural activities on art, knowledge and public space in Morocco in collaboration with universities and international, Arab and African entities. He recently published the novel Au détroit d’Averroès (2017, Le Fennec & 2019, Fayard.) 
     
    Abdellah Karroum is a curator, writer and educator (b. 1970 Rif - Morocco). He is the Artistic Director of L’appartement 22 in Rabat - Morocco, and the Director of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha - Qatar since 2013. 

    Karroum is also the founder and artistic director of a number of art initiatives, including L’appartement 22 in Rabat, and has curated numerous exhibitions, such as, most recently, “Moroccan Trilogy 1950 - 2020” at Reina Sofia in Madrid (2021); “Our World Is Burning” (2020) at Palais de Tokyo, Paris; “Kader Attia: On Silence” (2021), “Revolution Generations” (2018), “Shakir Hassan Al Said: The Wall” (2017), Wael Shawky: Crusades and Other Stories (2015), Farid Belkahia: Aube(s) (2015), and Shirin Neshat: Afterwards (2014), all at Mathaf. He was artistic director of Inventing the World: The Artist as Citizen for the Biennale Benin (2012), curator of Sous nos yeux [Before Our Eyes] at La Kunsthalle de Mulhouse (2013) and at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (2014), and associate curator of Intense Proximity for La Triennale, Paris (2012). Other curatorial and research projects include the Sentences on the Banks and other activities at Darat Al-Funun, Amman (2010); A Proposal for Articulating Works and Places for the 3rd Biennale of Marrakech (2009); the R22 art experimental web radio station established in 2007; Le Bout Du Monde art expeditions (ongoing since 2000); the Editions hors’champs series of art publications established in 1999.

    He received his PhD in Communication, Art and Performance from the Michel de Montaigne University - Bordeaux in 2001 with a dissertation titled “Nomadic Works: Towards a Post-Contemporary Art,” accomplished while working full time at the capcMusee in Bordeaux (1991-1996). He was alumni of MoMA-Columbia University Curatorial Leadership program (2014) and he regularly writes for specialized art publications.

  • A conversation on African presence and invisibility 

    September 21, 20217:00 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:00 p.m. Free entrance until the event’s capacity is reached.
    Register using this link.
    In Spanish.
    In order to mark Africa Day on Tuesday, May 25, we will be hosting this round table discussion, as part of the program "Entretanto" and the exhibition "Moroccan Trilogy," organized whit the cooperation of MNCARS and Medialab Prado. Register to attend in person. 

    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. 

    At this meeting, with moderation by journalist Sarah Babiker, we will get the opportunity to hear dialogue between M’barek Bouhchichi (Akka, 1975) and Yeison F. García López (Cali, 1992), who take a critical look at the racial factors in their own national identities through their artistic works. An identity-based liminality, borderland viewpoints, which boycott all pretense of essentialist simplicity and broaden the limit of what it means to come from one side or the other, attempting to find new ways to enunciate themselves.

    M’barek Bouhchichi (1975, Akka, Morocco) lives and works in Tahanaout, near Marrakesh, where he teaches art. Using painting, sculpture, drawing and even video, M’barek Bouhchichi carries out his work through a tentative language based on the exploration of the limits between our internal discourse and its extension towards the outside world, the real world, and his social representation as a racialized person.

    Yeison F. García López (1992) was born in Cali (Colombia) and grew up in Madrid (Spain). He self-identifies as Afro-Colombian and Afro-Spanish. He studied Political Science and the Master in Research Methodology in Social Sciences: Innovations and Applications, at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). Anti-racist activist. Founding member of the Afrodescendant University Association Kwanzaa of the UCM (2014-2016). Member and coordinator of the Asociación Conciencia Afro. Curator of the Conciencia Afro Festival (2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019). In 2016, he published the poetic plaquette "Voices of Impulse", edited by the Centre for Pan-African Studies. And in 2021 he published his first collection of poems "Derecho de Admisión", published by La Imprenta.

    Sarah Babiker (1979, Madrid) has a degree in Social and Political Anthropology from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences and is a specialist in International Information and Countries in the South. A journalist and partner at El Salto Diario, she writes from a viewpoint focusing on feminisms, anti-racist struggles, neighborhood resistance and social justice.