A collective labour
North African Artistic Presence in Belgium
This event ran on 14.11.2025. But wait, there's always more at Kanal! Check out the calendar.
A collective labour is an afternoon of conferences that examines the artistic and cultural heritage of the North African presence in Belgium and its relationship with Africa-based contemporary artists.
- Date
- 13:00 — 20:00
- Location
- Location
- K1, Avenue du Port-Havenlaan 1, 1000 Brussels
Inspired by the 20th-century labour migrations between the Maghreb and Europe, Kanal convenes artists, curators and scholars who bring together diasporic and continental practices in conversation. Departing from an extractive and alienating modern history of labour, discussions will recentre the notion of "workforce" around community-oriented intellectual and artistic practices working on memory, reparation, solidarity and care. Nestled in a Brussels’ neighbourhood at the crossroads of migrating movements, Kanal's programme seeks to create an agora for the city of the 21st century.
Panel #1: "A bilateral vision": art and archives linked to the North African Heritage in Belgium (EN)
This panel is inspired by the name given to the 1964 labour exchange agreement between Belgium and Morocco. It brings in discussion Belgium-based artists and scholars whose practices reflect upon the history of North African immigration through the lens of family history, race, labour and archives of social struggle, with a particular attention to aesthetics.
Panel #2: A labour in common: practices for the 21st century (FR)
This panel highlights Morrocco-based and transnational practices that engage the underrepresented heritage of female labour, the Black experience in Morrocco, and the history of craft, embracing expansive categories across cordoned notions of race and historical past, art and authorship.
Programme
Friday 14.11.25
- — Doors opening
- — Welcome and introduction by Sandrine Colard and Pietro Scammacca
-
Saddie Choua, artist
Joachim Ben Yakoub, art worker, researcher, and teacher at Ecole de Recherhce Graphique (ERG) and Sint-Lucas Antwerp
Mounir Eddib, artist
Moderator: Phillip Van den Bossche, coordinator of Visual Arts at Moussem, Centre Nomade des Arts (Brussels). - — Coffee Break
-
Fatima-Zohra Ait El Maâti, architecture gradate and art consultant, founder of Tayri
M’barek Bouchichi, artist
Eric Van Hove, artist
Moderator: Morad Montazami, art historian, curator, founder of Zamân Books & Curating. - — Concluding Remarks
- — Music by Monstera Occulta
Credits and bios
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