In February and March 2023, we were in residence in Fez, Morocco for the Nawat Fes program, organized by the American Language Center. As a residency experience, it was very unique for us especially as it was much more socially engaged than what we are typically used to. When we first arrived in Fez, we had no idea what to expect.

We were greeted by our new home in the medina center, (in)famous for its chaotic layout: its tangled narrow streets the pride of locals, and the blight of newcomers. Everyone knows that one of the best parts of traveling is getting lost, and the medina expedites that process greatly. We learned early on to just embrace it as a fact, and acknowledge that all roads eventually go somewhere, for better or for worse.

*The Alif Riad, one of the ALC’s event spaces*

Instead, the American Language Center (the ALC as it’s called) itself is situated in the Nouvelle Ville, the newer part of the city built by the French colonizers in the beginning of the 20th century. One perk of our project here was the chance to take 10 hours of Moroccan Arabic lessons. We had the most wonderful teacher who taught enough Darija to be able to recognize some conversations here and there; all of a sudden, all these mysterious sounds were up for potential understanding. Hours spent at the ALC, mainly revolved around the campus’ Z Cafe that serves loubia and other local treats at super affordable prices. There we were able to meet all the other students, either Moroccans coming to study English or foreigners to study Arabic.

*Moroccan macaroons, Kaab el Ghazal, and Coco (coconut merengue cookies)*

A main element of our experience included the volunteers organized by the ALC, three wonderful people who helped us get around and who we also bounced ideas off of during our stay. One of them, Ayoub Louizi, even introduced us to his father, master baker of incredible Moroccan macaroons, Kaab el Ghazal, millefuilles and more traditional treats.

Musically speaking, our project represented one new step of our multi-year collaboration with Marta Forsberg and Andreas Dzialocha. Together, they shaped an amazing open-source machine that employs AI to produce new musical scores. The input material includes stories and interviews of people, images, and videos. For our time in Morocco, we decided to conduct interviews of local people who entered our everyday life experience, a kind of archival core sample of society. We devised a list of around 40 questions which we asked to just about everyone we met during our stay - it provided such a fantastic insight into society and culture, age and religion, memories and dreams.

The idea was to finally present the performance in the context of a shared dinner celebration in a public space, where we would facilitate conversations on the same questions over couscous, and create new memories for people. This was a great excuse to learn more about local foods, so we even took cooking lessons in our home with a fantastic local chef, Nejia, and of course we took part in the regular cooking club, making malawi and enjoying it alongside some tea prepared in Saharian style.

We got to experience some local talent too, including a touring contemporary dance show at the Kan Ya Makan school, and a storytelling session at Palais Faraj. A couple of little adventures were also quite memorable for us, such as the hike up the Marinid Tombs and a visit to an abandond regal mansion, now a location for squatting.

During one week we also got the chance to do a mini-tour visiting other Language Centers around the country to give workshops. The first stop was the coastal town of El Jadida, where we strolled on the beach (mostly used by the youngsters for football training) and visited the Portuguese bastions. Oh, and the breakfast was every morning an experience, including the eggs with khlea!

Followed suite the centre in Marrakech, which unfortunately happened to coincide with a Sunday of pouring rain, so participation in our event was excellent but quite reduced. Rabat welcomed us with an excellent hostel (Dar Rita), and a very interesting mix of urban feelings but also traditional Moroccan. The workshop was great, and we had a good time enjoying a night at the cinema too. Always moving by train, we finally reached Oujda, in the very East of the country, a city not really populating the touristic itineraries. Our rhythm workshop session at the American Corner there was very fun, and even more fun was hanging out afterwards with two new friends, Hind and Ayyoub, who shared with us a lot about the history and identity of the city.

Guests enjoying couscous during our final event
Photo Credit: Anouar Majdi

Our final event in Fez took place in a rather unusual spot of the Medina, away from the main alleys, in a little square that opens up between high walls. The square had its own history, result of a collapse of a old house, it had become neglected for a bit and then taken over by kids playing football, until a businessman-gangster decided to open a restaurant, take over the responsibility of the ‘public space’ and close it off with a gate. It turned out good for us, as we could use it without worrying much about bureaucratic permissions of the city. Guests were accommodated at tables and on carpets around us, sitting at a minimal setup on the ground. Four mini pieces of music, including projected images on the walls, were alternated with sets of questions and food dishes as the courses of a meal. Guests were invited to record their own conversations and share them with us, for the future generations of AI-processed tracks. It’s the first time that we have been working with human voice, and we are so excited about the possibilities it brings along and the power of connection and memory it signifies. We are hoping we will be able to collect more similar material everywhere we go!

*A quick video shoot on our roof, thanks to Taha El Houmam*

Our last two days in the country included a short visit to the nearby city of Sefrou, that we reached with the usual fun shared taxi. Sefrou has its own small medina, and there we had a wonderful time conversing with Jess from Culture Ventures. And finally, after a final couscous with all the Nawat Fes team in the ALC garden, we got to shoot one short music video on the roof of Dar Bennis thanks to the initiative of a new friend, Taha.

That’s how our stay in the land of the harira, bissara, and pastilla came to an end! It will be unfamiliar now once again to walk along a street without the chance of bumping into an orange cart, a trotting donkey, or a child carrying a tray of dough to be baked at the communal oven. What an invaluable experience to be able to live within the walls of this medina!