The terraced hills of Amman, Jordan, spin on my screen as Khadija El Bennaoui shows me her surroundings off her iPad as we’re about to start our interview over Skype.
She’s in Jordan for Dewan, a symposium retreat with a focus on contemporary dance, which she has coordinated.
“I work on cultural co-operation projects, covering the region of North Africa, the Arab world and, recently, Cuba,” she says.
Based between Brussels and her hometown of Agadir in Morocco, she relies heavily on new media to get her work done.
Her current location is, so far, an oasis in a land of conflict. As she points out, she’s got Palestine and its troubles to one side, and the threat that is Isis on the other . It would be fair to say that one of the defining features of life in North Africa right now is unrest – it is not a safe place to be.
“Art in turbulent areas is even more and more active, it is more creative. I don’t want to say that wars inspire artists more than peace, but artists become more committed and engaged. They cannot avoid being creative,” says El Bennaoui. “Art itself is poetic and political. Being an artist is always being political.”
Aside from the threat of death, artistic practitioners across the region Bennaoui works in have had to battle insufficient infrastructural challenges be they the legal status of artists, funding opportunities and places where to perform.
The more enterprising of the independent artistic groups saw there was a need for funding in the region, and around 2,000 regional funding agencies were set up, which managed to tap into international cultural funding, and, in recent years, private corporate investment.
However, artists in the region face problems which can only be solved by others. One of these includes the legal status of artists – in many of these countries, art is not recognised as a profession, which can create problems when applying for external funding or for visas. In some cases, contemporary dancers had to register in the tourism industry as “entertainers”, something she points out they were patently not.
Art itself is poetic and political. Being an artist is always being political
The lack of legal recognition also compounds already problematic situations like access to mobility: artists from nearby Syria were not given a visa to 90 into Jordan for the event she has been organising, despite having been given flight tickets.
“Syrian artists cannot travel with their passports. Before that, it was Palestinian artists. It’s becoming more and more difficult to travel in the Arab world, because they’re all seeing citizens of other countries as trouble makers.”
Arab artists have been gaining visibility over different platforms internationally, for one reason or other. She is wary, however, of artists from the region being promoted solely because of war or political reasons – and wants artists to be treated as artists. “I don’t want to attack this vision of things, but I would be very careful with it. I would work very carefully with it . Is it opportunistic, is it humanitarian action?” she asks.
Having worked in three continents, she believes artists globally share a common concern, which is not exclusive to the more conflict-ridden parts of the globe.
“Worldwide, freedom of expression and creation is a problem. It’s a problem in France, it’s a problem in the US, it’s a problem in Morocco, it’s an issue in Asia, in Africa, in Europe.
“We tend to say it’s only in countries in Africa, the Arab world or Cuba, but believe me, it’s a worldwide issue,” she says, adding this problem had different faces and expressions all around the world.
“I don’t like to stereotype, I’m not defending dictatorships at all, but talking about censorship in Africa and not talking about censorship in Europe is unfair.”
Khadija El Bennaoui is one of the speakers at the first annual Euro-Med International Conference on Cultural Relations, being held at the University of Malta Valletta campus on Saturday and next Sunday.
www.valletta2018.org