Moroccan festival encourages student innovation

An unfolding cultural exchange event gives a platform to Moroccan youths’ artistic expressions.

By Naoufel Cherkaoui for Magharebia in Rabat – 12/01/12

[AFP/Abdelhak Senna] A series of workshops held in four Moroccan cities aim to help youths tap their innovative potential.

For ten days, Moroccan students are showcasing their talents in arts, video, dance, theatre and music. The third round of “Direct Dialogues”, which run through January 20th, aims to boost youth participation through arts and cultural co-operation.

Students in Sale, Rabat, Kenitra and Casablanca have been invited to engage with Spanish guests as part of the initiative, held by the International Institute of Mediterranean Theatre (ATTIS) in collaboration with Mohammed V University in Rabat and al-Mu’tamid University.

“The main goal of this round is to train innovative students through cultural and innovative mechanisms, because innovation serves the main issues of the country and humanity,” ATTIS manager in the Arab world Larbi El Harti. “Moroccan youths enjoy significant abilities, but just need training.”

“The other positive thing about this event is the creation of interaction between Moroccan innovative students and some Spanish people who study at fine arts institutes in Granada, Madrid and Barcelona, as well as artists from Germany and some Latin American countries,” El Harti added.

According to Abderrahim Benhadda, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in Rabat, the workshops will help Spanish students “remove the stereotypes they have about Morocco so that they may confront the negative ideas about Morocco when they return to their country”.

“In this, we’re betting on young people,” he said.

“The event will allow Moroccan students to meet with foreign interlocutors from the north, and this dialogue of civilisations will have a positive impact on our students,” commented Said Amzazi, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences in Rabat.

For student Nesim Haddad, who will take part in music workshops, the event is an opportunity to show innovative potential, “open new horizons” and meet other cultures.

“Moroccan young people are very innovative, but they don’t have opportunities to show their abilities,” he added. “The previous rounds of ‘Direct Dialogues’ have shown the extent of innovative abilities that Moroccan students have in art, such as drawing and cinema.”

However, Haddad regretted that the scope of the event is only “limited” to four cities. “We wish that the events of this festival will run all over the year and in various cities across Morocco,” he said.

In his turn, Aziz al-Marbouh, who took part in fine arts workshops, told Magharebia that “the event would be an opportunity for students’ innovative works of art to be seen by the public rather than be confined to the university premises”.

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