Arts Collaboratory

Since the 1990s, video creation in Arab countries has witnessed constant growth and renewal. The specific political and social conditions of these communities, their deeply-rooted narrative and poetic traditions (written and oral), as well as a decisive presence of music and ritual have all allowed these works to encompass a very wide-ranging field of experimentation and reflection in which a fascination with technology is mixed with a sense of poetry and rhythm, the use of silence, and the ability to speak to us directly or metaphorically of their individual or communal realities.

To show the richness and complexity regarding the production and presentation of video and moving images in Arabic cultures, TalebCherche Midi and Videokaravaan project are launching the ARAB MEDIA LAB CENTRE.

Arab Media Lab is the first media arts platform of its kind, not only in Morocco, but within the Arab world. Conceptualized as an independent space for the exhibition of Media arts, it offers possibilities for work production - from digital experimentations to digital independent filmmaking – as well as workshops and art residencies.

Their rich programme emphasizes collaborative film making and organizes trainings on video production through a project-based, hands-on process that is combined with the development of the creative, conceptual, and technical skills needed to work within the new media art context.

Grounded on the belief that the best way to learn film/video and all media arts production is to make them, this platform will provide the infrastructure as well as resources (like free access to equipment, technology and professional assistance) to allow artists to produce and exhibit media art works. In so doing, Taleb Cherche Midi fills up a void in the Arab world where there is an evident lack of art schools dedicated to new media and where artistic manifestations are traditionally connected to stagnant institutions that lack the ability to renew and adjust to the requests of local contemporary art practices like video art, mixed media manifestations and experimental film creations.

Arab Media Lab aims at:

• Creating a Media art platform that functions as laboratory and creative physical space.
• Operating as an exhibition space to show the works of local Media artists and guest artists form the Arab world.
• Giving a chance to the local public to meet up with the western new media art scene.
• Strengthening the Media Art sector in the Arab world while contributing to the circulation of works from the Arabic and North African countries in different (international) video and film festivals.
• Diversifying the "Western” perspectiveon art from the Arab world and allow for contact between Western artists and Arab artists.
• Showing the richness and complexity of reflections on the countries with an Arabic culture through video and moving images.
• Creating an online platform which will allow Video makers, Media artists and film makers to upload their works to be seen online.

Although the project is still in a developmental stage, it has already attracted the interest of many organizations and institutions locally and internationally.

In June 2010 Taleb Cherche Midi - videokaravaan - introduced the ARAB MEDIA LAB project to the Moroccan public. For this introductory presentation, they organized a discussion and a film screening programme of recent video works from different Arab countries like Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan, attracting more than a hundred visitors.