Agadir Cultural Publication « The Lights of the Médersas Âtiqas », Photo book by Farida Bouâchraoui
Farida Bouâchraoui, Academic and Photographic Artist, has just published a photo book entitled « The Lights of the Madrasas Âtiqas », in the shadow of Sufism which is a first photo book on the medersas in Souss.
Farida Bouâchraoui, Academic and Photographic Artist, has just published a photo book entitled « The Lights of the Madrasas Âtiqas », in the shadow of Sufism which is a first photo book on the medersas in Souss.
This photo book is a photographic approach to the Atiqas madrassahs and the aspect of one of the paths of Sufism that reigns there. A way of expressing the ambition to open up to the religious and spiritual heritage in Souss, to keep it in living memory and to think about establishing photographic archives which are an integral part of the history of the country and Moroccan identity.
Publishing a photo book on the madrasas in Souss is firstly a reminder that at one time in history, Souss was Souss Al Âlima and also to pay homage to the Ôulamas and Fouqahas and the Tolabas (students of traditional Koranic schools)
All of the photographic reports and field visits carried out took place between 2005 and 2015. A long period made up of observations of the places of the madrasas and a social group; the Ôulamas, Fouqahas and Tolabas, where Farida Bouâchraoui used both languages as narrative tools; written and visual.
The photographs are organized into a visual text to construct a photoethnographic story through the language of images. The photographic selection was organized around spiritually charged madrasahs, which are found in rural areas and also in urban areas.
This photo book benefited from the support of the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences of Ibn Zohr University and the National Initiative for Human Development, a program of the Inzegane Ait Melloul prefecture.
Farida Bouâchraoui is Professor of Linguistics in the Department of French Language and Literature at the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences at Ibn Zohr University in Agadir. She is also an Artist Photographer. She was a founding member of the Agadir Photo Club 1998/2009, Ex-president of the Photos Club 2006/2009.
She has participated in several group exhibitions in Morocco, France and Qatar, she has organized several individual exhibitions in Morocco and France; the main exhibitions; Amazigh Emotions Regards sur la Femme de l’Anti-Atlas 2005, La Médersa 2006, Ombres et Lumières 2012. Abroad, The exhibition Amazigh Emotions Regards sur la femme de l’Anti-Atlas contributed to affirming Amazigh culture as an essential component of Moroccan identity.
To promote culture and artistic practice in academia, she also teaches photography. She was responsible for running a course on Photographic Art and Visual Communication, and a photographic art workshop within the Faculty, mainly her creation of the photographic project Mois de La Photo, 2011.
As part of the promotion and awareness of Amazigh cultural heritage and in order to get involved in safeguarding Amazigh artistic and cultural memory, she created a Research Team on Amazigh Art and Culture, 2015, of which she is Manager. His Photos are the subject of publications; as a book cover, as well as in Moroccan journals, magazines and newspapers.
Author of several photographic reports for the production of photo catalogs, tourist brochures and postcards whose main objective is the promotion and preservation of the photographic heritage of the Souss region. She has led communications on photography at conferences and study days, nationally and internationally. She also led seminars, photo workshops and training in Image Art and communication for the benefit of private schools, faculties, clubs and associations in Agadir.
Its Main Distinctions:
– 3rd Prize in the National Photographic Art Competition organized by the Agadir Photos Club 2002,
– Honorary Prize of the Agadir Photo Club 2002.
– Photographic Works Selected in Two World Competitions; World Competition of the 6th World Photographic Art Fair of Limours in France 2009, which earned it the title of the only Moroccan Participation in this Fair, and Selected Works also at the Al Thani For Photography Prize in Doha, Qatar, 2009.
She published a photo catalog Amazigh Emotions, Regards sur la Femme de l’Anti-Atlas, published by the Commune Urbaine d’Agadir 2008 and a travel diary Bonheurs d’Errances, published by Editions Persée 2014.
Well done Farida and good luck. You embody the other face of the Soussie intellectual woman who fits perfectly into her socio-cultural environment by highlighting the Amazigh heritage, through the lens of a camera.
