ARID LANDSCAPES

This project has been developed during an artist residency in Tetouan, Marocco in collaboration with the printmaking department at Institut National des Beaux-Arts Tétouan and the foundation Green Olives Art. It uses arid geometries informed by Islamic repeated patterns of infinity to transform site-specific observations into geometric structures. These patterns link broader cosmological ideas to everyday surroundings, but instead of offering a perfected image of nature, the work takes shape through handmade, uneven forms grounded in specific places and their ecological and social conditions.
It is based on site-specific observations from the Rif Mountains near Tétouan in northern Morocco. At first glance, the region appears lush and verdant, its rolling green fields forming a picturesque landscape. Yet this visual richness conceals complex social and environmental challenges. The fields are primarily used for cultivating kif, a practice with a long history in northern Morocco. The region’s climate has long supported its growth, possibly as far back as the 11th century BC.
During the Spanish protectorate period beginning in 1912, cultivation was permitted and remained legal until the 1970s. Although alternatives have been introduced since its prohibition, many farmers maintain that insufficient grazing land and challenging climate conditions make other forms of agriculture difficult. This unresolved socio-economic situation has direct environmental consequences. Large-scale deforestation—primarily driven by forest clearing for agriculture—has led to severe soil degradation. As topsoil is washed away, erosion intensifies, further destabilizing the landscape.
Within this context, the project reads geometry not as abstraction, but as a tool for articulating how cultural history, ecological stress, and spatial form intersect within a contested terrain.
 
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