Moroccan Memory Routes

Mapping Memory Routes of Moroccan Communities (2016-2017)

An arts and heritage project produced by Aldaterra Projects in collaboration with Al-Hasaniya Moroccan Women’s Project, Making Communities Work and Grow (MCWG), the Centre for Critical Heritage Studies, Politecnico di Milano, and Queen Mary, University of London.

Between May 2016 and March 2017 Alda Terracciano engaged members of the Moroccan community in West London with the aim of exploring the local Moroccan living heritage through a series of Memory Sessions focused on the heritage of people’s everyday life. These memories were then shared through the installation Zelige Door on Golborne Road, including a digital interactive sensorial map of Golborne Road (also known as Little Morocco), physical objects related to various aspects of Moroccan culture, each requiring a different sense to be experienced (smell, taste, sight, hearing, touch), Augmented Reality (AR) software and olfactory displays superimposing pre-recorded video testimonies and smells onto the map.

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Mapping Memory Routes of Moroccan Communities represented a creative response to the increasing gentrification of Golborne Road, which has forced many Moroccan families and businesses to leave the place, loosing memory of their contributions to making the areas one of the most culturally vibrant of London. In this respect, the project aims to create a space for directly involving communities, as carriers of a rich cultural heritage, revealing the tacit cultural heritage of London. Finally, working closely with Moroccan and Muslim communities aimed to awaken a critical understanding of current cultural stereotypes, stimulating participants and wider audiences to re-evaluate our interconnected histories on both sides of the Mediterranean at a time of conflict and political instability.

Read a published conference paper here.

Video of project launch at Rich Mix, London, 03.03.2017