A collective labour, An exploration of the North African heritage in Belgium and its resonance within contemporary African art

Inspired by the 20^th-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 21^st 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 21^st 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.