CCA Research Associate Marie-Andrée Pellerin begins residency in Morocco

Our 2021 Research Associate Marie-Andrée Pellerin is set to begin her residency in Morocco with the Ansible Institute this month. The residency had been postponed since March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, but she is now able to travel from her native Quebec to join the rest of the artists in the Moroccan desert near Erfoud for three weeks. Her participation is supported by Canada Council for the Arts.

The Ansible Institute were seeking proposals from practitioners across all media and disciplines with interest in the strategic use of speculative fiction. The Ansible Institute is a transitory speculative fiction research laboratory, facilitated by artists/writers Martina Raponi and [M] Dudeck. They construct environments that activate the imaginative possibilities of worldmaking across media, while probing, mapping and deconstructing its modes and mechanisms through media analysis, collective reflectivity, seminars, critical dialogues, workshops and the sharing of each other’s individual work in a supportive and critical environment. The residency also leaves considerable time for individual focus upon one’s own creative work in any media.

This residency takes place in a remote location in the Moroccan Sahara, in the traditional territory of the Amazigh (Berber), in an outpost built and maintained by Karen Hadfield, who has lived among the Amazigh of the region for the past nine years. The residency will combine interdisciplinary intermedia dialogue sessions facilitated by Ansible with adequate time and space in the desert to devote to everyone’s individual praxis. Optional screenings will take place regularly, and participant-led workshops or seminars are very welcome.