New production: The Fundamentalist " Based on a true event "

THE FUNDAMENTALIST

  HD / 15'00 / August 2009 / Germany / The Netherlands / Morocco

NEWS

TROC ART: Art & Identity
Contemporary Art Exhibition: Foundation ONA (Villa des Arts) Casablanca / Rabat 2007 / Opening 12 April / 04 June 2007 in Casablanca / 2nd Opening 14 June in Rabat .

The Exhibition will be curated by the VIDEOKARAVAAN* and will explore the new forms of art expressions with a new generation of Moroccan Mixed media artists. (Video, Photography, graphic design, installation, fine arts, new media, music, live performances.). Troc Art resembles video makers and mixed media artists from Moroccan different kind of backgrounds: some produce their work within Morocco, others are part of European migration... and others come from different contexts but, for critical or personal motives, have decided to immerse themselves in this one culture. We think that the reflection is made richer by this difference in the situations of the authors, which also helps to give a better understanding of the complexities of the tensions at play, and to offer new and more open keys for approaching the Moroccan culture. Read More...

 Van Abbe Musuem Be[com]ing Dutch / http://www.vanabbemuseum.nl/gatherings

The project seeks to put our ideas of national identity under pressure and to examine and challenge the processes of inclusion and exclusion in The Netherlands today. As questions of cultural identity and normative 'national' values become ever more of an issue in political and cultural debate the concept behind Be[com]ing Dutch is to move the agenda of multiculturalism from notions of toleration and difference towards building a shared but agonistic democracy on a cultural level through the use of one of the few remaining public sphere institutions left to us - the museum. It requires wide public participation, that is encouraged, prepared and committed to over a longer term than a single exhibition.To begin the project Be[com]ing Dutch we are issuing a call to join us in Eindhoven for a three day ‘Gathering’. We invite you to come together to listen, debate and discuss with a variety of invited artists, thinkers and activists including (a.o.) Babak Afrassiabi, Abdellatif Benfaidoul, Bik Van der Pol, Igor Dobrovici, Surasi Kusolwong, Sarat Maharaj, Sohelia Najand, Maria Pask, Mario Rizzi, Superflex, Nasrin Tabatabai, Abdelaziz Taleb, and Aline Thomassen. They will present ideas and models of art practice that challenge and critique our various understandings of identity and visibility and offer imaginative possibilities for organising ourselves collectively.

Videokaravaan / Media Art workshop 2nd edition / Agadir, Morocco

Contemporary art making has been profoundly impacted by new digital technologies. In Morocco, Artistic manifestations are traditionally connected to the institutions without the ability to renew and adjust the requests of   local contemporary art presentations. Video art creation in Morocco is very limited, and the work of local video artists is hardly shown, also the lack of Media schools and institutions is very noticed.The project will be as a platform, which will encourage artists to work under a specific program–theme, and also exchange ideas and ways of working. This intensive 2 weeks workshop will focus on how digital media informs and evolves visual language for artistic expression and personal transformations.The participants will shear experiences with more experiment artists and theoreticians, as well as   the project will give them chance to require various skills (technical, theoretical and practical).

Videokaravaan / Test-Portal Amsterdam / www.test-portal.nl

Videokaravaan project came to explore Arab happenings by creating a nomadic programme and database on video directors from Arab and North African countries who have joined together to connect and spread the works of young creators.We present in our next station: AMSTERDAM-TEST PORTAL 2005 a wide-ranging panorama of work from different countries and situations. Some of the central themes of the selected works are the following: migration; exile and identity; occupied territories; neo-colonialism and resistance; memory and gender, etc. Besides, Videokaravaan team will give a modest homage to Edward Said one of the Arab leading literary critics and intellectuals of the last quarter of the 20th century by showing some of intimate films and documentaries that offers a glimpse at some of Said's reflections on the themes that dominated his life's work.

Videokaravaan- New Arab video / TransaArab / LaCaixa Foundation / Barcelona Spain/ http://www.mediatecaonline.net

videos from: Jordan, Lebannon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria,..The idea behind TransArab is to show the richness and complexity of reflections on and about countries with an Arabic culture through video,a hybrid medium which allows for autonomous production, independent of major commercial or institutional productions... and which, by it’s nature, is much more closely linked to social, community and subjective microcosms than to “satellite” vision and “audiovisual fastfood”.The program includes video makers from different kinds of backgrounds: some produce their work in their own countries, others are part of European or American migration... and others come from different contexts but, for critical or personal motives, have decided to immerse themselves in this other culture. We think that the reflection is made richer by this difference in the situations of the authors, which also helps to give a better understanding of the complexities of the tensions at play, and to offer new and more open keys for approaching this culture.  In these countries, the language of video is inseparable from their culture: the rich tradition of written as well as oral literature, the music, trance, rituals, popular religion, mystic poetry....All of these are present in daily life, without having being turned into “folk” culture or institutionalised and thus deactivated or neutralised, and so they retain the force that comes from being a popular medium for participation and knowledge, interiorisation and ecstasy. A shared characteristic: the use of video as a tool for analysis and critique of the silenced realities of a particularly conflictive contemporaneity, and also for introspection and exploration of private life. Works that think about and sense the relationships between the individual and the community, gender issues, ethnocentricity, neo-colonialism, migration, media hostility...Arising from specific situations within the cultures themselves, they contribute shared elements and also an “otherness” that is essential for the increasingly necessary self-criticism of the so-called “Western” model.

 Videokaravaan / Media Art workshop 1 st edition, Agadir Morocco