Art Matters – Contemporary Approaches to Morocco's Past

• Applicant: Dr. Sarah Dornhof
• Subject Area: Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
• Term: from 2020 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 434502847

This project examines contemporary art practices in the Moroccan context and the ways in which artistic research and art’s specific knowledge contribute to new historical and transcultural analysis. On the one hand, it looks at new developments and tendencies in art practices in Morocco since the early 2000s, such as the opening of new museums, art spaces and events in the country, as well as changing modes of producing, exhibiting, circulating, and reflecting artworks in transnational or global contexts. On the other hand, it interrogates the specific modes in which particular art projects and exhibitions inquire into Morocco’s past, reactivate cultural memories, and contribute to other forms of historical knowledge as works of art.By joining artistic research, (trans)cultural theory, and memory studies, the research thus aims to contribute new empirical analysis to anthropological research on contemporary art in global contexts, and to further develop a transdisciplinary methodology for studying relations between art, history, and memory in changing postcolonial constellations. Therefore, the research not only interrogates the status, characteristics, and political potentials of art within contemporary reconfigurations of cultural knowledge, power, and history, but also aims to provide other imagery and accounts of interrelating histories across the Mediterranean, the Sahara, and the Middle East; across different times and temporalities; as well as across different modes of cultural critique, political subjectivity, and social transformation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants