"Port cities, creative cities!" by THINK TANGER

For the first talk on the Agora, Hicham Bouzid, artistic director of the Think Tangier urban laboratory, will take us straight to the heart of the matter with his introduction to the myth of Tangier - the discrepancy between fantasy and reality fueled by cultural and artistic production to reimagine a new mythology of Tangier in a broader temporal and geographical context. 

The panel that follows will put the city back into its contemporary perspective. World city, open city, gateway city. Tangier will enter into dialogue with Dakar and New Orleans through its organic connectors, resource people, to investigate the complexities of these territories and broaden the field of vision we can have on the city. 

This project, initially led by the Global Humanities Research Center at Tulane University (New Orleans, USA), is based on two fundamental principles. Firstly, port cities share certain characteristics, both positive and negative, such as high levels of complexity, multilingualism, environmental crisis, income disparity and particularly rich cultural sectors. Secondly, these cities have a particular potential to mobilize their creative economies for positive change, and the individuals we call "organic connectors" are uniquely positioned as agents of transformation.

Hicham Bouzid

Hicham Bouzid is an art director, editor and curator based in Tangier, Morocco. With over 13 years' experience collaborating with national and international cultural and artistic institutions and foundations, his work explores the complex interplay between Morocco's urban and social landscapes, influenced by the neoliberal policies of the last twenty-five years. In 2016, Hicham co-founded Think Tangier, an innovative cultural organization working at the crossroads of contemporary art, design, participatory research and urbanism practices. Under the Think Tanger umbrella, Hicham runs three venues: the Tanger Print Club (Publishing Workshop), an art residency and most recently the Kiosk - a brand new venue dedicated to art and innovation in his hometown. Alongside these initiatives, he launched Makan, an annual cultural magazine focusing on socio-urban issues.

Brian T. Edwards

Brian T. Edwards is Professor and Dean of the School of Liberal Arts at Tulane University in New Orleans (USA), where he oversees 35 departments and programs in the social sciences, humanities, fine and performing arts. He is the author of Morocco Bound: Disorienting America's Maghreb (Duke, 2005); After the American Century: The Ends of U.S. Culture in the Middle East (Columbia, 2016), as well as numerous essays, articles and op-eds that have appeared in a wide range of scholarly, mainstream and literary journals. He is co-editor, with Dilip Gaonkar, of Globalizing American Studies (Chicago, 2010), which is the result of a multi-year project based at Northwestern University, where he was on the faculty from 2000-18 and held the Crown Chair in Middle East Studies. At Tulane, he led a two-year initiative on anti-racism and the disciplines, published as a podcast in 2023, and writes frequently on the future of liberal arts education. He is currently working on a multi-site initiative on global port cities, linking scholars, urban planners, artists and community activists in Tangier, New Orleans, Dakar and Saigon.

Driss Ksikes

Driss Ksikes is a writer, playwright and associate dean at HEM LCI-Education, in charge of research and academic innovation. A researcher in media and culture and associate author of several international literary and critical journals, he has initiated projects that place art, culture and debate at the heart of the city. He is a founding member of the Groupe de réflexion sur le décolonial en Afrique du Nord supported by ACSS (Arab Council of Social Sciences) and, since 2019, a member of the scientific committee of CODESRIA, the main structure promoting social science research in Africa. His latest titles include Textures du chaos (Ed. Le Fennec, 2022), Les sentiers de l'indiscipline (Ed. En toutes lettres, 2021) and Au détroit d'Averroès (Ed. Le Fennec, 2017 - Ed. Fayard, 2019). Along with his co-author Fadma Aït Mous for Le métier d'intellectuel: Dialogue avec quinze penseurs du Maroc (Ed. En toutes lettres, 2014), he was awarded the Prix Grand Atlas for best essay in 2015.

Fatima Bintou Rassoul Sy

Fatima Bintou Rassoul Sy (b. 1988, Dakar) is an exhibition curator and cultural mediator. Her research focuses on Senegal's cultural policies since the 1960s and on the market dynamics influencing the contemporary art scene in Africa and its diaspora. She is program director of RAW Material Company, a center for art, knowledge and society founded in 2008 by curator Koyo Kouoh. With RAW, Fatima has co-curated several exhibitions, including La ville est à nous / The city is ours: Carole Diop & Nzinga Mboup (2023) and Suñu Jant (Our sun), a collaboration with Little Sun (2022). Bintou Rassoul Sy holds a degree in exhibition science and techniques from the Université Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne). Before joining RAW, she worked in reception and cultural mediation at institutions such as the Louvre Museum, the Rodin Museum, the Grand Palais and the Louis Vuitton Foundation. Returning to Dakar in 2018, she played a key role in the opening of the Museum of Black Civilizations.

Think Tangier

Think Tangier is a non-profit, multidisciplinary cultural agency, founded in 2016, that aims to promote culture, creativity and social and urban innovation within the metropolis of Tangier. By fostering a participatory approach that encourages different stakeholders - artists, researchers, entrepreneurs and local communities - to actively collaborate, the organization aims to propel a dynamic of collective intelligence to shape a more inclusive, creative and humane urbanism.