Je suis Alain Mounchili Junior, photographe et artiste camerounais, résident à Tanger. Je me passionne pour cet art depuis 2006 . C'est en photographiant mes voyages ou devrais-je dire mon périple du Cameroun pour le tour d'Afrique qu'est né en moi le désir de faire de ce passe-temps mon métier. On me décrit souvent comme auto-didacte mais j'ai suivi de nombreuses formations et séminaires afin de me perfectionner. J'ai ainsi travaillé auprès de Aurore CLAVERIE, une photographe-vidéaste qui m'a appris les bases théoriques, avant de poursuivre par des formations auprès de l'association tangéroise DARNA (nov. 2016) ainsi qu'auprès de l'association SMDP (juil.2017). Ma soif d'apprendre me pousse à continuer à m'instruire et d'explorer de nouvelles techniques.
Parallémement, j'ai collaboré avec divers artistes, associations et galeristes pour réaliser soit des commandes, soit des expositions. La dernière en date est actuellement en cours au sein de la Libraire-galerie d'art, Les Insolites.
Mes travaux et mes expositions tournent autour des thèmes de la migration, du voyage, et des inégalités sociales. Cela est notamment lié à mon engagement personnel au sein de l'association VOIE DES MIGRANTS que j'ai fondée en 2013 et qui vient en aide aux personnes les plus démunies.
J'apprécie volontier que l'on me voit comme un photographe-reporter.
Toutefois, pour moi les arts ne sont pas cloisonnés, et je suis souvent amenés à m'intéresser à des domaines connexes et liés comme le théâtre, la danse, la musique l'art-plastique, arts que j'apprécie et exerce.
Aurélie Lierman
Aurélie Lierman’s oeuvre is multidisciplinary and balances between radio, installation, performance, vocal art and composition, with her extensive collection of unique field recordings and soundscapes from rural and urban East-Africa serving as the common denominator. Soundbite by soundbite she transforms and molds all those sounds into something she describes as “Afrique Concrète”. Fascinated by the narrative power of abstract sound and music, she frequently adds dramatic and documentary elements to a musical compositional structure (or the other way around). In addition to this, being a versatile vocalist, she constantly premieres new music by emerging young composers from around the globe in a multiplicity of styles.
Aurélie Lierman’s work has won her international awards several times and has been broadcasted, exhibited and performed in Europe, Northern America, Oceania, Tanzania, Morocco, South Africa, D.R. Congo and Israel. Aurélie Lierman is a former radio maker and host at the national Belgian broadcasting corporation (VRT, Brussels). She appeared as a sound artist and vocalist on two Nurse With Wound albums. all info: www.aurelielierman.be
Benjamin Bēni
EvaMaria Ocherbauer
Eva Maria Ocherbauer is an Austrian born photographer, curator and lecturer at Neue Schule für Fotografie in Berlin. Coming from a theatrical background, performing as an actress, dancer and stage-designer, she is accustomed to interdisciplinary processes, integrating sculpture, painting and performance into her photographic practise. Her photographs are featured internationally in various exhibitions and publications.
Her first collaboration with institutions on the African continent started in 2010 with “Watching You, Watching Me” an exchange project Berlin / Addis Ababa, in partnership with Aida Muluneh. After “Crossing Compasses” in 2012 together with the Yaba College of Technology and the Goethe- Institute Lagos she established the “LagosPhoto Summer School” in 2013, in cooperation with the African Artist’ Foundation. In 2016 she founded together with Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie the FotoFactory.Lagos, a training platform and network for young Nigerian photographers.
Courtney Erwin
is a specialist in international and comparative law, with expertise in international human rights, humanitarian, and criminal law and Islamic law. She has lived in the Middle East North Africa region for six years and has worked and traveled extensively throughout the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Courtney has over a decade of experience working internationally with religious, political, legal, and civil society actors, in addition to UN agencies, multi-lateral organizations, and foreign governments.
In 2014, Courtney moved to Morocco and began working as Senior Program Specialist at the Mohamedian League of Religious Scholars (al Rabita al Mohammadiyya lil ‘Ulama’), which provides intellectual leadership on religious matters through a network of sixteen research centers in Morocco. In this role, she assists the Secretary General in research on countering violent extremism. She has also provided strategic guidance for the establishment of its new Center for Research and Training in Interfaith Relations.
Prior to moving to Morocco, Courtney spent four years as the Legal Program Manager at Education Above All, a Qatar-based foundation dedicated to the promotion and protection of education in situations of crisis and conflict. While in that position, she led research, capacity building, and advocacy programs aimed at using international human rights, humanitarian, and criminal law to better protect students, teachers, schools, and universities in conflict areas.
During her time at EAA, Courtney conducted research as a Visiting Professional at the International Criminal Court, convened and briefed members of United Nations human rights bodies, and organized regional meetings with government, civil society, and academic stakeholders.
She also worked with the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack in a lead capacity on an initiative to develop international Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use during Armed Conflict, which call for armed parties to avoid using educational buildings or making them targets of attack, and which has been endorsed by over fifty states ( see ).
Courtney received her B.S. in Foreign Service and a certificate in Muslim–Christian Understanding from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service; her M.A. in Islamic Studies from McGill University’s Institute of Islamic Studies; and her J.D. from Seattle University School of Law, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Seattle Journal for Social Justice.
Hamza El Fasiki
Hamza El Fasiki is a multidisciplinary artist: Traditional Visual Copper Artist and Traditional Andalusian Musician from Fez, Morocco. He is also Founder of CraftDraft.
Frank Vellenga
M'hammed Kilito
I was born in Ukraine and grew up in Morocco. When I was 18, I moved to Canada where I studied photography at the Ottawa School of Art and cinema at the University of Montréal. I also hold a degree in software engineering and a master's degree in political science from the University of Ottawa.
In 2012, I was hired by an advertising agency in Montreal, as the head of the video and photo department. Three years later, I left to settle in Morocco and devote myself exclusively to photography.
Since I've been back to Morocco, my photographic research aims to document the small details of everyday life, which can inform on the general situation of Morocco. My work combines both a keen sense of aesthetics and an interest in sociopolitical questions.
My photos have been published in several magazines such as The Washington Post, Off The Wall, Jeune Afrique, Afrique Magazine, Dyptique and Telquel.
Matteo Rubbi
In 2007, Rubbi co-founded Cherimus, a nonprofit art association based in Sardinia that works to create a new relationship between the contemporary art world and small regional initiatives. In 2009, he was part of the residency program, Le Pavillon du Palais de Tokyo, Paris, and in 2012 was an artist-in-residence at ASU Art Museum, Phoenix, US. In 2011, he won the 8th Furla Prize "for his ability to interact with the viewers and to create new feedbacks between the exhibition space and public space in a spirit of generous engagement." He has held solo shows in institutions such as CAC Synagogue de Delme, France; Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice; GAMeC, Bergamo; Combine Studios ASU Art Museum, Phoenix. His work has been on view as part of group shows at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Palais de Tokyo, Centre Pompidou, Paris; CNAC Le Magasin, Grenoble; PAC, Milan; GAMeC, Bergamo; GAM, Milan; Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, Milan; MAN, Nuoro; Isola Art Center, Milan, and in various art galleries such as Galerie Perrotin, Paris; Annette Gelink, Amsterdam; Marianne Boesky, New York; Limoncello Gallery, London.
Madiha Sebbani
Madiha Sebbani Is a contemporary artist working lately on interactive performances between the closed and the open spaces which are basically the public space. The Concept has started with the ambition to share Art with everybody, without any considerations to the knowledge of Art, also non lucrative expression of Art. A performance is first of All an ephemeral moment also a very real connection between the Artist and the public.
Meriem El Haitami
Meriem El Haitami is a Professor of English and Gender Studies at l’Université Internationle de Rabat. Her research explores the dynamics of women’s religious authority and activism in Morocco with focus on state-sanctioned female imams and their particular role in nation-building and in the war on terror. During 2015-2016, El Haitami was a Rice Fellow and Lecturer at Yale University, where she taught courses on Islam and gender in North Africa. From 2012-2013, she was a Fulbright Scholar at SUNY Binghamton, her research during this period explored Sufism as a global Islamic movement. In spring 2015, she was a Carnegie Fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, where she was conducting research relating to modes of religiosity and attitudes towards human rights in Morocco. Her research interests include the emergence of female religious authorities; religious performance including ritual, musical, and social; the study of gender and sexuality in Islamic contexts; feminist exegesis of the Qur’an; social movements and body politics.
Mohammed Hamdouni
studied at the art-academy in Hamburg, she met Andy Warhol 1976 in Düsseldorf and started to work in his „Factory“ in New York . In 1982 she had her exhibition at PS1 and worked together with Alana Heiss. 1984 she moved back to Hamburg where she is still living and working. 2004 the Russian State Museum St. Petersburg have shown a Retrospective followed by a show at the Falkenberg Collection in Hamburg. During her collaboration with Werkstattgalerie Berlin her works where shown in Paris, Vilnius, Klaipeda, she took part together with Pascual Jordan at the St. Petersburg Biennial and recently in Bologna at the Art-Week projekt “Macrocosmi-Patterns of an other Order”. In April 2015 her artworks where shown in Fes /Maroc. At the same time she was co-exhibiting with the Chinese artist Shan Fan in Beijing at the Today Art Museum.
Nadège Chabloz
Nadège Chabloz is a French anthropologist (Institut des mondes africains, IMAF, EHESS, Paris), author of Peaux blanches, racines noires. Le tourisme chamanique de l'iboga au Gabon (Louvain-la-Neuve, Academia, 2014) and of a research documentary film trilogy: Bwiti et iboga en VF. She's working now on the heritage of sufism and religious groups in Marocco.
Ouiam Mallouk
Ouiam Mallouk is 27 years old. She was born and raised in Fez. Ouiam obtained her BA in Cultural Studies from Sidi Mohammed Benabdellah University, Fez. Then, she got her Master's of Arts in International Studies and Diplomacy from Al Akhawayn University, Ifrane. She occupied the position of a Bookshop assistant for more than a year at the American Language center in Fez. She is an Alumna of the ETII Fez/ 2016. She is currently the local coordinator of the English Teaching Internship Initiative Fez and the president of ALC-ALIF Model UN Club. Ouiam is passionate about learning new skills, women leadership, and volunteer work.
Mohamed Charkaoui
Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar
Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar is the Syrian American author of the forthcoming novel The Map of Salt and Stars (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 1 May 2018). She is a member of the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI) and of American Mensa. Her short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, The Saturday Evening Post, PANK Magazine, The Normal School, Mizna, and elsewhere. She is a 2017-2020 Montalvo Arts Center Lucas Artists Program Literary Arts Fellow and an alum of the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA) and the Tin House Writers’ Workshop. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net.
Sandy McCutcheon
Shishani Vranckx
Shishani is a talented singer-songwriter loved for her smooth and powerful voice. Her roots are Namibian and Belgian in origin, but she grew up mainly in the Netherlands. In her work she bring these worlds together. Her vocal style has been influenced by Afro-American and African music traditions, giving her a truly unique sound. Her music is comforting and has a thread of strong social consciousness running through it. Her song “Minority” garnered two nominations at the Namibian Annual Music Awards (2012). She has also been credited with a host of awards, both locally and internationally including winner of "Last Band Standing" (Namibia, 2012) & singer-songwriter competition "Mooie Noten" (Netherlands, 2013). She was a finalist in the prestigious Radio France International Discovery Awards (2014). A year later, Shishani joined forces with Sjahin During (percussionist & producer) and together created “Namibian Tales”, an acoustic quartet diving into the musical traditions of Namibia. In 2016, the quartet won Best World Music Album from Netherlands with their debut album "Itaala" and they have been touring internationally since. In June 2017, the group traveled to the Kalahari desert to collaborate with four women from the San (“Bushmen”) community in Namibia. Together they’ve performed and recorded an album that will be released in September this year!
During her career, Shishani has performed internationally at events such as: Africa Festival in Wurzburg (Germany), Glastonbury Festival (UK), Lake of Stars (Malawi), Roots Open Air Festival (Netherlands) and in numerous other countries including France, Czech Republic, Poland, Ireland, Greece, Italy, India, Morocco, Jordan, Kenya, South Africa, and her home countries, Netherlands, Belgium and Namibia. Shishani has also spearheaded various arts initiatives in Namibia focusing on social upliftment. She is a founder of ARTNAM; advocating for the promotion of Namibian arts. In her work as an anthropologist (BA) & musicologist (MA) she has specialised in contemporary urban Namibian music. She has written on this topic for the Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Contemporary Music of the World, Music in Africa, and most recently the book The Changing Faces of Aawambo Music Arts was launched. Together with the Namibian Tales quartet, Shishani is collaborating with UNESCO and the Museums Association of Namibia on safeguarding cultural heritage through archiving and producing new music in collaboration with San communities in Namibia. Shishani means ‘crown’ in Oshiwambo, one of Namibia's native languages.
Neil Vand der Liden
Neil van der Linden is programmer of music, theatre and visual arts in and from the Middle-East and North-Africa in the region and in the Netherlands. In the UAE he curated for the New York University Abu Dhabi Noise from the Middle-East electronic music festival, the Abu Dhabi Book Fair and the ADACH for the Abu Dhabi Sounds of Arabia Festival. He has a special predilection for the practice of authentic music and innovative formats to present these practices and keeping them alive. In theatre, he is focused on exchange with Iran and in the past with Egypt and Syria. In visual art, he is currently setting up an exhibition in the Netherlands and the UAE on artists from the Middle-East who are or were settled in the Netherlands. He co-founded and edits the online Gulf Art Guide and the Gulf Art Guide and Medina Amsterdam Facebook pages.
This is the second time he is involved in the Fez Gathering. Last year he moderated a forum on crisis as a theme in contemporary art and art of past times.
Tina Barouti
Tina Barouti, U.S. Student Fulbright Fellow, Ph.D. Candidate in the History of Art and Architecture at Boston University, USA Barouti is a fifth-year Ph.D. Candidate in the History of Art and Architecture at Boston University conducting research on Morocco's first art school in Tétouan with the support of a Fulbright Fellowship.
Ramia Beladel
Ramia Beladel (°1987, Marrakech, Morocco) is an artist who works in a variety of media. With a conceptual approach, Beladel tries to approach a wide scale of subjects in a multi- layered way, likes to involve the viewer in a way that is sometimes physical and believes in the idea of function following form in a work.
Her art works directly respond to the surrounding environment and uses everyday experiences from the artist as a starting point. Often these experiences are framed instances that would go unnoticed in their original context. By applying abstraction, she creates intense personal moments linked by means of rules and omissions, acceptance and refusal.
Her works never show the complete structure, the results in the fact that the artist can easily imagine an own interpretation without being hindered by the historical reality. By examining the ambiguity and origination via retakes and variations, she tries to increase the dynamic between audience and author by objectifying emotions and investigating the duality that develops through different interpretations.
Her works doesn’t reference recognizable form. The results are deconstructed to the extent that meaning is shifted and possible interpretation becomes multifaceted.
Yassine Balbzioui
Sidi Brahim Khalil Tidjani
Movement Cercle Souffles is a spiritual cultural and social movement dedicated to sufism and the Tijani spiritual path. Created as a intellectual circle gathering religious leaders, researchers, teachers, writers and artists affiliated to the Tijani spiritual path.
Mohamed Arejdal
ولد الفنان البصري محمد أرجدال سنة 1984 بمدينة كلميم جنوب المغرب، مهاجر سري سابق 2002، تخرج من المعهد الوطني للفنون الجميلة بتطوان سنة 2009. شارك في العديد من المعارض والتظاهرات الفنية داخل وخارج المغرب. مدرس للفنون التطبيقية منذ 2014، هوأيضا المحرك الاستراتيجي لمؤسسة "سلمات" للتربية الفنية والشؤون الثقافية، والمبادر للمشروع المستقبلي ''المدرسة العتيقة للفنون البصرية - 2025" بتارودانت حيث يشتغل ويعيش
Yassine Boudouaia
Najat Kaanache
was born in San Sebastian (Spain) to Moroccan parents and has enjoyed successful careers as a television actress and professional chef in 3-star Michelin restaurants across three countries. She was the first (and only) Moroccan chef ever to work at famed Spanish restaurant, El Bulli, where Ferran Adria extolled her virtues as a chef, stating “Najat Kaanache represents the soul of Morocco through the language of the kitchen. Her passion for creativity and innovation are an exemplary reference for the whole country.”
Najat is the host of AMC Network’s highest rated new cooking series in Spain, "Cocina Marroqui" as well as a new food and travel series, “Sabores”, currently in production in Mexico. She has been prominently featured as CNN’s Woman of the Week and in publications like Vogue Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Milenio, El Universal, Maghreb Arabe Presse, Huffington Post and LA Weekly.
A tireless advocate for women’s rights, Najat strives to inspire women of all ages to achieve their dreams. She is the founder of “Six Ingredients”, a global solutions-based organization centered in the philosophy that every challenge can be overcome by utilizing six main ingredients which are the five chemical senses plus mindfulness. Six Ingredients unites community members through organizing dining summits that generate awareness and empower attendees to become guardians of their community. In 2013, Najat was featured in the celebrated cookbook “Share: The Cookbook that Celebrates Our Common Humanity”, with 100% profits donated to Women for Women International, a non-profit helping women in war-torn countries to rebuild their lives. In 2016 she presented a TED Talk in Marrakesh on “Coexistence of No Existence: The Uniting Power of Food”.
In November of 2016 Najat opened NUR to shine a contemporary light on Moroccan gastronomy, serving local ingredients with a creative touch. The space housing NUR is already world renowned for its magnificent remodel and dramatic design. It has been featured as one of the world’s most beautiful restaurants by Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Bloomberg Business and was just nominated for the 2017 World Luxury Restaurant Awards!
Quotes from Chefs about Najat:
"Najat Kaanache representa el alma de Marruecos a través del lenguaje de la cocina. Su pasión por la creatividad y la innovación debe ser una referencia para este país".
Ferran Adrià, Chef, El Bulli "There could not be a meeting of the Basque Culinary Center without Najat, the best ambassador of the Basque Country, present!" - Andoni Aduriz, Chef, Mugaritz "Najat is a lovely, kind-spirited person, full of inspiring energy and commitment!" - Rene Redzepi, Chef, Noma "I met Chef Najat Kaanache at el Bulli. She emerged from that kitchen as a natural leader, as well as a preeminent and accomplished chef. To be able to identify a chef among chefs in a kitchen of such a high caliber, is truly a reflection upon the talent and skill of the individual as embodied by Chef Kaanache. I was impressed by not only her knowledge, but also her ability to teach and share her knowledge." - Bill Yosses, Executive Pastry Chef, US White House
Benjamin Füglister
Benjamin Füglister is an artist and cultural entrepreneur born in Switzerland in 1978. He has lived in Berlin, Germany, since completing his studies at the Basel College of Art in Switzerland, and at the Utrecht College of Art in the Netherlands. In his artistic practice he questions social conventions and explores their visual transformations. His particular interest is photography as a medium for visualising the shifts in the human image. Benjamin Füglister has been a member of the European Photography magazine editorial staff since 2006, and in 2009 he established piclet.org, a platform for hand-picked photographic portfolios and directory for photography festivals, magazines and institutions. He is the founder of CAP Prize, the prize for contemporary African photography, tendered for the first time in 2012. Füglister is a nominator for the renowned Prix Pictet, and sits on the Photo Basel artistic advisory board. He regularly works as a reviewer at international photography festivals, such as the European Month of Photography in Vienna or the Houston FotoFest.
Yvon Langué
Fernando Manrique
Fernando graduated in medicine 1993 after studying in Peru, Germany, UK and Australia. In Switzerland he completed master studies in Applied Ethics and Public Health, and trained and worked as psychiatrist and psychotherapist. Practicing different meditation techniques he became a meditation Teacher (UTA Institute, Germany) and a Tantra Teacher (Skydancing Institute, France). He also keep learning and practicing other mystical and spiritual traditions (Lomilomi, Romiromi, Shamanism, Vajrajana Tantra).
Roderick Grierson
Roderick Grierson is Menteşezade Research Fellow and Director of the Rumi Institute at Near East University. He has recently completed the first English translation of the Risalat al-Nushiyya of Yunus Emre and is currently writing an exhibition catalogue of engravings, lithographs, and photographs of Mevlevi dervishes beginning in 1665. In 2014, he delivered the Robertson-Hastie Lectures at the University of Glasgow, which examined the career of William Hastie, the author of The Festival of Spring from the Díván of Jeláleddín. He is now editing the sixth volume of the Mawlana Rumi Review for publication in 2015 and working with Sidi Brahim Tidjani and Omar Chennafi to prepare an illustrated introduction to the Tijani zawiya in Fes.
