New Tribes: Revis(it)ing historical caravan routes by LE 18

The conversation New tribes: Revis(it)ing historical caravan routes through the contemporary territorial perspectives of cultural initiatives by lumbung artist LE 18 brings together the initiators of various cultural initiatives and projects (such as Qanat, the Youmein Festival, Caravane Tighmert, Caravane Ouadane, and Project Qafila) to reflect on the lessons learnt from collective wanderings, wonderings, and workshops developed in Northwest Africa over the last decade.

A. George Bajalia is an anthropologist concerned with questions of temporality, borders, semiotics, and practices and politics of belonging, and difference. He is the co-founding director of the Youmein festival and residency in Tangier, Morocco. Laila Hida is a visual artist whose work explores through physical and symbolic spaces the subtle intertwining of vernacular practices with modern dynamics. In 2013 she founded LE 18, that became a shared space and an extension of her practice of collective thinking and experimental formats generated from local contexts. Francesca Masoero works as a cultural organiser and curator. She explores collective-making processes, the politics and poetics linked to watery commons and forms of being in common otherwise. Since 2015, she works at LE 18 in Marrakech, where she initiated QANAT. Carlos Perez is an architect based in Ceuta in Spain. He develops projects related to territory planning, urban planning, housing, civil engineering, equipment, heritage, and contemporary art. In 2013 he founded Marsad Drâa, a transdisciplinary open research platform on desert regions; since 2015, he co-organises Caravane Tighmert.

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