Who is Who? 

Irtijal is an artistic and cultural association that aims to promote, disseminate, and support the transmission of both contemporary and traditional arts in Morocco and abroad. It also carries out socially beneficial actions grounded in human and ecological values, operating through a participatory approach.

In 2023, Irtijal created Tassarout, a cultural third place designed to foster convergence between culture, art, and craftsmanship through a variety of activities that encourage exchange and creation among artists, artisans, creatives, the local community, and visitors.

In terms of programming, Tassarout follows a dual approach of dissemination and cultural and artistic transmission through regular cultural events, creative workshops for all ages, and masterclasses that contribute to strengthening the capacities of professionals in the cultural and creative industries. In parallel, we remain responsive to current cultural affairs and the proposals of local cultural actors, in the spirit of a dynamic, evolving space of spontaneous encounters and community engagement.

Tassarout also offers an artist residency program, titled "Temporary Occupations", which welcomes not only artists but also other art sector professionals—such as curators and researchers—into a unique environment rooted in the medina and its artisan community.

• Duration: 6 weeks
• Dates: 6 April -17 May 2026
• Eligible Disciplines: Visual Arts, including but not limited to installation, sculpture, performance, participatory practices, socially engaged art, and interdisciplinary work involving artisanal materials or craft-based techniques.

The Tassarout residency offers a space where contemporary art and craftsmanship meet in a dynamic of transmission, experimentation, and dialogue.

Open to visual artists, it encourages the exploration of traditional know-how, collective narratives, and forms of collaboration by working with materials specific to the Fondouk (wood, leather, copper, raffia, etc.).

In resonance with the theme of Halaqat II, the residency explores modes of transmission, intercultural dialogue, and collaborative practices, drawing on artisanal knowledge and the collective stories of the medina. It places a strong emphasis on process, the memory of gestures, and the ethics of care, fostering resilience and solidarity through art.

Over six weeks, three artists will benefit from tailored artistic and logistical support, including close guidance from Nezha Rhondali, meetings with artisans and the local community, and outreach activities with the youth of the Tofola Chaabia association. The residency includes two public moments: an artist talk (“Tea With…”) and an open-end final presentation.

Hosted in a traditional riad nearby, the artists will immerse themselves in an ecosystem where memory, creation, and social engagement nourish each other, fostering a lasting impact on the Fondouk’s community and the local artistic landscape.

Amalgam Studio, founded in 2014 in the heart of Beirut, is a vital hub for the performing arts, focusing on movement, contemporary dance, and physical theatre. It supports research and creation through residencies, affordable workshops, mentorships, and community-driven projects. Committed to inclusion, it encourages dialogue, empowerment, and exchange between local and international artists.

• Title of the Residency: Bodygrids
• Duration of the residency: 6 weeks
• Dates: 15 April – 1 June 2026
• Eligible Disciplines: Performing arts/ Dance / Theatre

This 6-week residency invites artists to explore care, trust, and artistic research through movement and embodied inquiry. Led by Petra Serhal and Yara Boustany, it features workshops, open studio time, and a final sharing. Together, they offer diverse approaches that center the body as a site of knowledge, connection, and transformation

Drum Jam, founded by Bashar Khries in 2009, is an innovative cultural institution with a mission to transform Jordan's creative landscape. What began as a street art project in Amman has evolved into a dynamic event management and artistic education company. Committed to diversity and community engagement, Drum Jam offers innovative workshops, interactive performances blending traditional Middle Eastern percussion practice with contemporary musical practice. The host organization uses Bashar's studio at Jabal Al Weibdeh, Amman, now transformed into the Creative Minds Media Hub. The hub has seven adaptable multipurposed rooms, designed for creation, art therapy, music production, and intercultural exchange. Drum Jam's vision is to empower marginalized communities, foster cross cultural exchange, and build a sustainable, self-reliant creative community. Through fusing art, learning, and social transformation, Drum Jam persists in advancing a vision of transformative cultural expression within Jordan. One of the key features of the hub is its *hands-on, do-it-yourself approach*. Artists, musicians, and creatives will have access to: - Shared workspaces for music production, visual arts, and multimedia projects. - Workshops and training sessions led by industry professionals. - A pool of artistic materials for borrowing, enabling participants to create without financial barriers. - Collaborative events, in the popular spirit made for the people by the people.

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• Duration: 3 months
• Dates:1 February – 30 April 2026
• Eligible Disciplines: Music, Sound Art, Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Media Arts, Cultural Heritage

The Creative Minds Residency focuses on integrating creative expression and mental well-being through interdisciplinary practice. Artists are invited to explore themes of care and gender via artistic research, workshops, and community engagement, in a supportive, gender-sensitive space designed for resilience, reflection, and collaboration. Creative Minds Media Hub, located at Bashar's studio is a pioneering residency that seeks to integrate creative expression and subtle mental health intervention. The project directly responds to the absence of accessible mental health care in Jordan—especially for marginalized populations—by incorporating art therapy and creative workshops within a community-driven initiative. The hub will also feature a dynamic range of daily ateliers, including dance, art therapy, percussion workshops and other care driven activities. Our target audiences are young people, women, and artists interested in being part of cross-cultural exchange and skills development. The residency fosters creativity, social inclusion, and resilience through the activities and establishes a sustainable platform between the local traditions and worldwide artistic tendencies. This project aligns Halaqat's thematic interest in care and gender sensitivity and therefore is a driver of long-term cultural transformation in our society. Bashar Studio recognizes the importance of holistic artist well-being. Our residency is not just a work space, but a system of care that promotes creativity, mental health, and professional growth. Our initiatives are: Community Integration: Artists are linked with local cultural venues, mentors, and grassroots organizations to ensure long-term influence. Flexible Work Environment: Artists are able to organize their residency according to their personal needs and work rhythm.

Queens Collective is a vibrant multidisciplinary arts and residency hub in Marrakech, dedicated to nurturing both local and international artists. It provides a safe space and platform for creative exchange, collaboration, female empowerment, and community activities. Through diverse residencies and public events, QC supports artistic growth and cultural connection, believing in the arts’ power to inspire care, freedom, and transformation.

• Duration: 3 months
• Dates: 2 February – 1 May 2026
• Eligible Disciplines: multidisciplinary art, live art, side specific performance, dance, visual art, sound art and design

This residency supports multidisciplinary artist mothers with children up to 10 years old, offering space to integrate care-work into creative practice. Embracing the child as part of a new artistic body, it invites mothers to develop work shaped by creative motherhood. Rooted in local context, the program highlights the lack of structural support for artist mothers in Morocco and creates space for collective strategies, embodied research, and long-term artistic empowerment.

Your proposal should show a great interest in shifting your artistic practice and approach to a child inclusive practice with your child as a partner. We want to see where you are coming from and how your intent to transform your way of artmaking including an example of the coordination of a productive day taking in consideration the daily routine of your child and work phases your child is not part of. F.ex. video editing. (We know not ever day will look like this).

The White Villa Residency of the Goethe-Institut Cairo offers artists the opportunity to spend 3 months in Cairo.

The residency rooms are located in the Dokki district on the west side of the Nile across from downtown. The residence apartment consists of two single rooms and one double room, each with its own bathroom. The kitchen, living areas and a workspace room are shared. Outside there are two terraces and a table tennis table. Additional rehearsal rooms can be organized as needed.
The residency offers local exchange and networking opportunities with artists, groups, and institutions, as well as project development and the possibility to showcase works or work-in-progress at a public event around the topics of Halaqat on care and gender. The artists in residence will also have ample time to explore Cairo and other cities relevant to their projects.

We are especially interested in projects around the topic of care, exploring diverse narratives, social realities, and aesthetic expressions, offering strong visual and thematic contributions to current artistic and cultural conversation.

Duration: 3 months
Dates: 11 January - 9 April 2026
Eligible Disciplines: Comics & Graphic Novels

Concept:
Comics and graphic novels offer a powerful space for visual storytelling, where drawing and writing come together to capture complex ideas, layered emotions, and lived experiences.  Their unique rhythm, pacing, and visual language allow artists to slow time, highlight gestures, and give voice to what often goes unspoken.

Within the framework of the Halaqat project, a three-month residency will take place in Cairo from 11 January to 9 April 2026, hosted at the “White Villa” residency space of the Goethe-Institut Cairo. This residency invites artists working with comics, graphic novels, and illustrated narratives as part of their artistic practice to reflect on themes of care and gender, whether through personal stories, speculative worlds, or forms of social commentary combining writing and drawing.

Placing particular emphasis on memory, relational and personal experience, the residency offers space to explore how we care through illustration, voice, and narrative form. We welcome projects that draw on the language of comics, such as panels, sequence, rhythm, and voice, to shape meaningful stories about how we relate to ourselves and others. Both traditional and experimental formats are encouraged, providing space to develop new work and expand the expressive possibilities of visual storytelling.

The residency offers local exchange and networking opportunities with artists, groups, and institutions, as well as project development and the possibility to showcase works or work-in-progress at a public event around the topics of Halaqat on care and gender. The artists in residence will also have ample time to explore Cairo and other cities relevant to their projects.

Some examples of what we’re looking for:
Graphic novels in progress or long-form illustrated narratives Hybrid or experimental formats that play with form, narration, or structure.
Projects that use sequential art to explore the rhythms of daily life or societal structures.
Visual storytelling that gives voice to uncommon, overlooked, or personal perspectives.

Dates: 19 April – 18 July 2026
Eligible Disciplines: New Media and Digital Arts, including interactive installations, sound, video, code, web-based art, AI, virtual and augmented reality, and immersive or interactive art.

Concept:
In times shaped by algorithmic and intelligent systems, as well as constant digital presence and pressure, our modes of attention, connection, and care are being redefined. As emotional and relational experiences become increasingly mediated through technological environments, new artistic questions emerge about fragility, exposure, and how we inhabit the digital sphere.

Within the framework of the Halaqat project, a three-month residency will take place from 19 April to 18 July 2026, hosted at the “White Villa” residency space of the Goethe-Institut Cairo. The residency invites artists working across new media and digital arts to explore how digital tools inform, complicate, or transform the ways we relate to ourselves and to others, we care, and we express.

This residency places particular emphasis on projects engaging with care and gender in digital environments, especially through the lens of algorithmic and intelligent systems, emotional technologies, online experiences and emerging technologies as tools for artistic reflection, dialogue, and transformation.

We welcome practices that work with generative code, AI processes, or real-time data as both materials and subjects, as well as artistic responses that reflect on digital care and vulnerability. Topics may include inquiries into digital intimacy, exposure, fatigue, encryption, and consent, as well as how digital tools might be reimagined to support protection and care.

We invite artists to reflect on how emerging technologies shape listening, connection and care and to explore creative approaches to the increasing presence of automation and interactivity in everyday life.

The residency offers local exchange and networking opportunities with artists, groups, and institutions, as well as project development and the possibility to showcase works or work-in-progress at a public event around the topics of Halaqat on care and gender. The artists in residence will also have ample time to explore Cairo and other cities relevant to their projects.

Some examples of what we’re looking for:

• Works using algorithms or AI to reflect on patterns, attention, or behaviour.
• Interactive installations shaped by user input, real-time data, or generative systems.
• Projects exploring encryption, privacy, or digital vulnerability through creative means.
• Digital storytelling using AR, VR, or web-based platforms.
• Sound, code, or network-based artworks that explore care and connection.
• Cross-disciplinary projects blending movement, voice, text, or digital interaction.

Created in 2006, Fondation Hiba is a non-profit organization dedicated to the development and promotion of art in all its forms: cinema, music, photography, fashion and design, street arts, dance and theater, digital arts, and more.
Fondation Hiba supports artistic creation, brings together private initiatives, encourages emerging talent, fosters the development of new art forms, and focuses on contemporary creations. Its mission is to support cultural initiatives through structuring projects and the promotion of artistic works. The Foundation targets artists, professionals, project leaders, cultural associations, and the general public.

• Title of the Residency: Noun
• Duration: 6 weeks
• Dates: 5 January – 15 February 2026
• Eligible Discipline: Music

Our residency is called NOUN - Soigner les formes, habiter les liens

Noun is a 6-week program at Studio HIBA in Casablanca - a professional music studio - mainly aimed at musicians. It responds to a pressing need: breaking away from rigid, production-driven residency models to foster creative exploration. The idea is simple: to give artists time to care for themselves, for others, and for the world around them.

We’ll welcome three artists who will work individually and collectively.

• Artistic and technical mentorships,
• Collective workshops on care and inclusive practices,
• Meetings with local artists and cultural players,
• Public events — exhibitions, performances, conversations,
• And documentation to share the experience afterward.

We will be working with our existing network and also opening new links.

Since the studio sits in the outskirts of Casablanca, we see this residency as part of a larger living network: a web of places, practices, and people. We want artists to move, meet, and exchange, not just stay isolated in one spot.

We’ll be working with spaces we already trust and weaving new links as we go.

Hunna Arts & Culture is an initiative that redefines artistic spaces for women and mother artists in the SWANA region. Unlike traditional art residencies, Hunna operates organically, adapting to the evolving needs of women artists rather than imposing rigid structures. Founded in 2022 by Flavia Juska Bechara, Hunna emerged from a deep-rooted belief in the necessity of a creative, inclusive, and family-friendly environment that nurtures both artistic expression and caregiving roles.

• Title of the Residency: M/otherlands: Reimagining Care Across Borders
• Duration: 3 months
• Dates: 15 June – 15 September 2026
• Eligible Disciplines: Visual arts (painting, textile arts, printmaking, sculpture), Performance arts (theatre, dance, movement-based practice, protest art), Literary arts (poetry, storytelling, memoir writing, experimental feminist texts), Media arts (photography, filmmaking, digital arts, feminist media activism).

“M/otherlands: Reimagining Care Across Borders” is a radical feminist residency exploring motherhood and care as sites of political and artistic power. Bringing together mother artists from different and various backgrounds and artistic contexts, the residency challenges patriarchal narratives through interdisciplinary creation, research, and public engagement. Hunna becomes a space for resistance, collective memory, and transformative feminist dialogue.