Casablanca: who owns the city #8 Fountain Talk

In Search of the Pluriverse

We meet at Musée Collectif with all participants of this ‘who owns the city’ edition: Mouna, Bodil, Rubén, Samba and Mohamed. Maria could not make it but is present in spirit. Some new voices join: street artist Grocco/Trick54 (more on him in talk #4 and #9), cultural producer Jamal Abdennassar (who Wong & Krier worked with in 201o) and artist/curator Yemoh Odoi (who organises artistic residencies for underrepresented members of the migrant population with his organisation The Minority Globe). Last but not least: Francien van Westrenen from Het Nieuwe Insitituut is also present in this circle of Casa-voices.

Musée Collectif is located close to a public fountain in Le parc de la Ligue Arabe. Miraculously our host Mohamed Faridji was able to turn it off, just for the length of this group talk.

We share the experiences and conversations of the past days and try to make sense of it: Casablanca as phoenix that burns and rises from its ashes, over and over again. The city as amplifier of notions, movements and manifestations. This migrant city invites to start over, to let go of what was. But how to solidify, to secure things in the long term? How to activate a collective memory? At the end of the talk Mouna thanks the internet. Is that the place to store Casa’s memories?

References:

Les années de plomb (1956-1999, years of cultural repression)
https://savoirs.rfi.fr/fr/comprendre-enrichir/histoire/maroc-les-annees-de-plomb
Ancien théâtre municipal de Casablanca (1922-1984)
https://www.geneanet.org/cartes-postales/view/347663#0
L’Uzine
https://luzine.ma/
Casaprojecta
http://casaprojecta.over-blog.com/
ICI Casa, Ville Inventive (2010)
https://sophiekrier.com/portfolio/ici-casa-ville-inventive/