USA Projects

I am seeking support to realize this rare and ambitious interactive installation for an upcoming exhibition in Europe this summer. The $10,000 donated to USAProjects will be dedicated to paying for the flights, food and lodging of the 10 Sahrawi women participants. Any additional funds raised will be directed toward the production of a publication about the installation (designed and written by me, Peter Lamborn Wilson and Michael Taussig) that will be distributed to the public free of charge.  In addition it will allow us to pay modest per diems to the project's production staff.

My project titled "The Art of Sahrawi Cooking" is an interactive installation and event inspired by my publication Dining in Refugee Camps: The Art of Sahrawi Cooking. This cookbook-in-solidarity with the people of Western Sahara is a culinary journal I made living and cooking with Sahrawi women in their homes inside the Tindouf refugee camps in Algeria. It is an investigation into the conditions of exile that were forced upon the indigenous people of Western Sahara since the invasion of their country in 1974.  Exploring their daily struggles, it draws on the meal as a reflection of the complex role that Sahrawi women play in providing sustenance, fortitude and a sense of tradition inside a compromised society.

The book was published in 2010 by Autonomedia. Shortly thereafter Peter Lamborn Wilson (aka Hakim Bey), a preeminent scholar and author on Islamic history and lore, wrote me a letter: “I dreamed that a group of Saharan women had constructed a booth at … [the exhibition], somewhat resembling one of the colorful tent-pavilions which wealthy Moslems took on Haj to Mecca…in the middle of the dream-tent stood a table …where big heaps of delicious yellow couscous was steaming away. Saharan women dressed like those in your book were handing out plates of cous-cous with some kind of tagine or stew to interested passerbys who were listening fascinated by tales of The Western Sahara, its misfortunes and its visions of freedom.”

Both he and our mutual friend, the anthropologist Mick Taussig, suggested to the curator and director of this exhibition about the importance of including a project dedicated to the people of Western Sahara and their ongoing struggle to regain their independence from Morocco and the right to self-determination.

The Art of Sahrawi Cooking will take place in a communal Sahrawi tent (or "jaima") designed, sewn and erected by a cooperative of Sahrawi women from the refugee camps. During the exhibition's first ten days, we will inaugurate a "Couscous Event" where Sahrawi women will offer tea and couscous to anyone who wishes to enter in exchange for a conversation about the Western Sahara. As customary in the camps, the meal will act as an agent of social engagement, actualizing the Sahrawi's dream of sharing their recent history of occupation and exile with individuals who live beyond their borders.

The tent will remain for the duration of the exhibition as a symbol of the temporary shelters that Sahrawi women have transformed into community sanctuaries for the past 37 years. It will function as a Resource/Reading Room offering contextual information about Western Sahara that elucidates the history of the territories, the refugee camps and the land-mined "Wall of Shame." We are also planning a schedule of events by and about the people of Western Sahara, including a fashion show for SaharaLibreWear, a presentation of documentary films, artist videos, and an evening of traditional Sahrawi song and dance.

By introducing the poetics of the Sahrawi experience at the exhibition, we are premising our project on the idea of using art as a peaceful weapon; one that can bring global attention and support to the Sahrawi cause. In this spirit, the installation embodies an idea best expressed by Wallace Stevens that: “If there is nothing except reality and art, the mere statement of the fact discloses the significance of art.”  (Materia Poetica, 1945).