The Greenhouse
2014 -
A platform for experimentation at the crossroads of contemporary art and botany.
The spirit of THE GREENHOUSE
THE GREENHOUSE is an open and participatory ephemeral space of 150m2 to 200m2, installed in public places, whose function is to welcome and promote the birth and development of new projects, new voices and ideas, free from constraints and dominant visions. In this dynamic, it invites the public, artists, students, researchers, cultural operators, scientists and all residents to collectively invest in this shared space and to carry out and follow programmes nourished by meetings, screenings, listening sessions, project presentations, workshops, radio broadcasts and other artistic interventions.
The Greenhouse consists of a library, a space for meetings and screenings, workshops, a photo studio, a listening point, a refreshment bar and picnic mats.
The permanent GREENHOUSE at Laassilat
The artistic project THE GREENHOUSE, on the initiative of Mohamed Fariji, was conceived and experimented for the first time in 2014 in the premises of the Atelier de l'Observatoire, in Laassilat, in a rural setting (Bouskoura region).
This project aims to create the necessary conditions for artistic and cultural development in a sometimes hostile and restrictive environment. This is in the image of the vegetables and flowers that grow there in a recreated universe favourable to their growth. Throughout the year, it hosted performances, experiments, workshops and interventions by artists, as well as researchers, botanists and scientists.
The Mobile GREENHOUSE
Since 2015, THE GREENHOUSE has been mobile, setting up in urban and peri-urban public spaces for in situ projects, offering artists and participants the chance to try and approach a certain independence of creation and thought by freeing themselves from external aspects, and to grow up outside imposed constraints. In particular, THE GREENHOUSE aims to encourage - and question - artistic and cultural production independently of political, economic and social constraints.
All editions
The Greenhouse Hay Mohammadi, Casablanca
5th edition - (2016) MOROCCO
The Al Firdaous Greenhouse
13th edition
May-July 2024, Oulfa, Casablanca
This Greenhouse, back to Oulfa Lake after the 2020 edition, had the objective to revitalize a forgotten yet beautiful landscape with its artists, inhabitants and researchers.
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La Serre x La Serre
12th edition
September 23 to 24, Ahunstic, Montreal
For this 2023 edition, The Greenhouse by Atelier de l'Observatoire joins forces with La Serre - performing arts, for meetings, family activities, artistic performances and open-air cinema, from 23 to 24 September 2023 in the Ahunstic district of Montreal .
L'Atelier de l'Observatoire and The Greenhouse - performing arts have in common that they support emerging, alternative and innovative artistic approaches that honour the links between performative gestures and society.
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The Horizonta Greenhouse
11th edition
December 2022, Casablanca
The Horizonta Greenhouse raises questions about art history research in the Maghreb. Who tells the story? What are the marginalized, unexplored areas of research? How can we teach art to our children? Who are the great figures of modern and contemporary art in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia? Who are the forgotten and invisible figures? What does this history of art, with its omissions and gaps, say about us? Horizonta seeks to develop an approach encompassing the Maghreb as a regional space for creation and shared artistic reflection.
Al 7diqa Greenhouse
10th edition
May 2022, Parc de la ligue Arabe, Casablanca
For 6 days, from May 17 to 22, the GREENHOUSE explore the various intellectual, artistic and sensory dimensions of the park. It offers a space for shared reflection, a free café, participatory workshops, country walks, audiovisual screenings and meetings. It is open to all for formal and informal meetings and dialogues between citizens, artists, cultural operators, political decision-makers and others. These complementary activities
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The Greenhouse, Al Firdaous
9th edition
March 7-15, 2020, Oulfa, Casablanca
As part of this edition, artists are invited to produce and design projects in the public space that relate to the Al Firdaous district, Al Oulfa Lake, its history and contemporary uses.
The issue of water is at the heart of the artistic interrogations that took place in and around the Greenhouse. Artistic works as well as curatorial research experiments were presented to the public to initiate a reflection on the role of water in the service of creating an imaginary around the lake.
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The Greenhouse on the roof
8th edition
Nov-Dec 2018, Hay Mohammadi, Casablanca
In November 2018, the Greenhouse is installed on the roof of the Urban Initiative neighbourhood association in Hay Mohammadi. It focuses its research on the architectural heritage of the city, engaging citizens to reflect on their habitat.
During this artistic emulation, projects of urban resistance are developed, such as a map of Brutalism in Casablanca, scenic forms around forgotten buildings and rituals, or plans for the occupation and reactivation of abandoned places.
As part of the project COLLECTIVE MUSEUM
7th edition
December 2017, Aïn Chock, Casablanca
In December 2017, the Greenhouse move to Aïn Chock garden, at the opposite of the Sahara Cinema. This edition is entirely dedicated to the Collective Museum project and the research being carried out into the neighborhood's collective memory.
On the program: meetings, screenings, exhibitions, radio, children's workshops, neighborhood newspaper, itineraries, the painting machine, Kabareh Cheikhats, Ammi Driss show, etc.
As part of the COLLECTIVE MUSEUM, AIN CHOCK project
The Greenhouse of Brigittine's garden
6th edition
September 2016, Brussels
"Located on the edge of an unusual neighborhood, this garden must above all become a space for ideas. Its ambition must present itself as a place of relationships between human beings, art, ecology, biology, botany, history, literature, sociology...(...) I hope the local residents will make it their own."
Benoît Fondu, landscape designer. Les Brigittines, residences and garden
The Greenhouse offers, a Resource -Library area, public workshops, guided tours, Radio of the Greenhouse ("pirate" broadcast and on the waves of RADIO PANIK), seed bomb workshops, video workshops, ephemeral photo studio, film screenings, readings, meetings, concerts, sound listening, performances, sound garden, refreshment bar.
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5th edition
May 2016, Hay Mohammadi, Casablanca
In May 2016, the Greenhouse is installed in the Hay Mohammadi district in Casablanca, in partnership with the Urban Initiatives association. It hosts the reactivation of the abandoned merry-go-round in Yasmina Park but also participatory workshops, conferences and artist renditions, screenings and meetings with filmmakers.
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4th edition
February 2016, Marrakech
In February 2016, the Greenhouse is set up in the centre of Marrakesh during the Marrakesh Biennale, with a library of texts, images and sounds open to all, in addition to a program of meetings, lectures, performances, screenings and workshops. The Greenhouse, implemented by a group of institutions working in Morocco such as Afrique in visu, le 18, Saout Radio, le Cube and l’Observatoire, becomes in this way an alternative space in which to collectively reflect on modes of production and the dissemination of art projects, and to present works in progress.
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The Greenhouse, Arab League Park
3rd edition
May 2015, Casablanca
From May 10 to 17, 2015, the Greenhouse is installed at the Arab League Park.
Turned towards the future, the researchers share their visions, and lead us to certain questions. Why do some projects exist and others don't? What are the types of projects favored by the current cultural production system? Who believes in what projects? Who allows them to realize themselves, or not? What are the parameters that determine and condition our ways of thinking and creation?
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2nd edition
2014, Casablanca
In 2014, the Greenhouse is installed at the "Etoiles de Sidi Moumen" cultural centre (on the outskirts of Casablanca), with the aim to collectively rethink the city and its functions, and to seek to recover urban and suburban spaces. Taking the form of workshops, research, collective creation and contemporary artist interventions with local inhabitants (making and throwing seedbombs, collective reflection on green spaces now used as rubbish tips or parking lots, cartoons, design, recycling, creation of a shared garden, culinary design, mini-publications, etc), the Greenhouse took its first steps within Casablanca.
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The educational Greenhouse, Laassilat
1st edition
2013 and 2014, Casablanca
With a surface area of over 200m2, the Greenhouse is installed year-round at the Atelier de l'Observatoire's rural setting (30km from Casablanca), which also includes the Atelier (work space), a residency-lodge, a vegetable garden (permaculture space) and a children's playground.
The greenhouse aims to recreate the ideal conditions for artistic and cultural development in an often hostile environment.
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