Journal - Allianz

Society
Latouri, EAC-l’Boulvart
Allianz Group Journal 2/2013
a medium that is sure to gain in significance.” Thoss
stresses that the aim of the Foundation’s commitment to
the project is reciprocity. He hopes that the joint project
will not only empower civil society but also usher in new
cooperation agreements.
Casablanca
Boulevard
of freedom
MICHAEL GRIMM
Tanger
Rabat
SPAIN
MOROCCO
Ten years ago heavy metal was still condemned
in Morocco as the devil’s work. One hard-rock
band even landed in jail back then. These days,
heavy metal musicians are among the avantgarde
of the country’s culture scene, thanks
not least to the internet radio station Boulevard.
The Allianz Cultural Foundation is sponsoring
the project.
ALGERIA
Music helps us convey what we can’t always express in
words. It describes an attitude to life; it’s part of one’s
personal identity. In Casablanca in 2003, a heavy metal
band found out how powerful music can really be when
14 young men were arrested for endangering the Islamic
faith. They were accused of practicing satanism and sentenced
to between one month and one year in prison.
Ten years on, in the spring of 2013, one of the convicted
band members is preparing a rock and heavy-metal program
for Casablanca’s internet radio station Boulevard.
This newly created voice for musicians, journalists and
audio artists was initiated by the charitable organization
EAC-L’Boulvart (Education Artistique et Culturelle –
L’Boulvart). Since 1999 it has developed a platform for
free spirits from the worlds of music, culture journalism,
film, design, fashion and street art. Morocco’s culture
scene is now synonymous with EAC-L’Boulvart, and the
annual L’Boulvart music festival is the most important
music and youth culture event in North Africa. The web
radio station is finally giving artists and journalists a
permanent platform.
“We hope that the online radio will help us solve our
infrastructure problems,” says Chadwane Bensalmai.
The 36-year-old journalist and her colleagues Hicham
Bahou and Mohamed Mehari form the backbone of EAC
Christine Auerbach of Bavarian on3-radio (back row, 2nd from right) at a meeting
of web radio broadcasters from Morocco, Germany and France in Casablanca in March
L’Boulvart. Since 2009, the radio station has had its own
multifunctional base. It is located just outside the center
of Casablanca in a business park adjacent to several technology
companies – hence the name Le Boultek.
The Le Boultek culture center brings together everything
that makes the hearts of radio journalists and musicians
beat faster: recording studios, conference and rehearsal
rooms and even a concert hall that seats 200. This is pure
luxury: rooms for rehearsals and concerts are still scarce
all over Morocco. “The culture scene has a hard time here,”
says Nadine Müseler from the German Goethe Institute
in Morocco. The art historian from Cologne has been
working at the Institute in Rabat for the past five years.
In 2009, the Goethe Institute and the Institut Français in
Rabat applied to the German-French Fund for Culture
Programs in Third Countries for basic funding for Radio
Boulevard. The Arab Spring in parts of the Maghreb
finally paved the way. The money funded initial training
sessions with European internet radio stations. Basic
technical equipment followed.
In 2013 the “Online Radio: Culture across all Borders”
project gained another supporter – the Allianz Cultural
Foundation. Its head, Michael Thoss, was convinced by
“the combination of trans-Mediterranean networking
of European and North African online radio stations –
Christine Auerbach has already benefited from the project.
The journalist from on3-radio, the digital youth radio
platform of Bavarian Radio, attended a network meeting
in Casablanca in early March. Online radio broadcasters
from Germany and France met at the Boultek to exchange
views. Auerbach was particularly impressed by the drive
and enthusiasm with which her hosts got the new medium
up and running. “They just rolled up their sleeves and
did it. You can feel the energy,” she reported after her
trip. It was like Grand Central Station, she said. And at
the center of it was Chadwane Bensalmai, buzzing with
energy. “There was a great feeling of togetherness,”
recalls Auerbach.
The hounding of heavy metal bands finally appears
to be a thing of the past. What was once regarded as
a sacrilege has become an art form. Hard on the heels
of the training sessions, workshops and the network
meeting in the spring of 2013, the first pilot programs
were ready for broadcasting. In one of the programs,
Moroccan jazz legend Jauk Armal and the emerging
artist Yassine Tirassi wax lyrical about their music.
Jazz gives you a feeling of freedom – it’s inimitable,
says Armal.
The radio station has been on air since May, and the remix
of old and new has proved popular. The new sounds have
even been well received by the royal family: King Mohammed
himself has pledged his support to Radio Boulevard.
The next meeting with like-minded artists will take place
in the fall. Then there’ll be further networking with online
radio stations from Spain and Italy, and a women’s internet
radio station in Cairo.
To read the long version of this interview please go to
HTTP://KNOWLEDGE.ALLIANZ.COM/JOURNAL
WWW.BOULEVARD.MA
WWW.GOETHE.DE/MAROKKO
HTTPS://KULTURSTIFTUNG.ALLIANZ.DE
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