Art Moves Africa – Retracing Roots and Tracing New Routes: Mobility and Touring in North Africa

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Conclusion & Recommendations
Inspiring networks, residencies and circuits have emerged
and been nourished across the region, thanks to the
dedicated work of visionary cultural operators and artists.
These initiatives must be supported.
At the same time, this push towards regional East-West
solidarity has not necessarily correlated with increased
mobility towards the South. This report has striven to
document some of the reasons why mobility between
North African countries and other countries across the
continent has been weaker than one might expect.
While many of these impediments are tied to long-entrenched
structures and trends that may be more difficult
to move, other obstacles are very much in flux. The most
prominent is the increasing closure of Schengen Europe,
which is shaping mobility on the continent at the level of
logistics but also, crucially, at the level of the imagination.
In parallel and relatedly, there is an emergent awareness
of the benefits of South-South connection and exchange,
and initiatives designed to stimulate and facilitate such
exchange are getting increasing momentum.
As the continent’s first mobility fund and the only continentwide
mobility fund open to all artistic disciplines, AMA is
in a unique position to help bolster this momentum. It is
our hope that this research will have contributed to this
vital goal by illuminating the opportunities that exist for
international mobility within North Africa and with other
African regions; shedding light on the impediments that
afflict this mobility; and articulating the recommendations
detailed below, all of which are drawn from feedback
from respondents and are geared at various stakeholders
(funders, cultural operators, artists, etc.).
—
QUOTE:
« If there’s any way to change things,
it’s to travel within our country and
to travel on the continent. This is the kind
of mobility that is going to change things.
When I went to Tangiers, I talked to
some artists; those conversations
gave me so much. When I went to Tunis,
I found myself in a bar/café with all the
Tunisian youth. It was sublime. I went
back to Algiers feeling euphoric.
I came back with so much energy. It
did me so much good. We need these
experiences! »
Mehdi Djelil
Visual artist,
Algiers*
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