80 Miles to Atlantis

Imane Djamil

 2020 — Tarfaya, Morocco

About this series

In 80 Miles to Atlantis, the second part of her work around the city of Tarfaya, Imane Djamil works closely with a group of friends born amongst the ruins, in search of a long lost time they haven’t known, fantasized from a nostalgia point of view. Together, they reinvest in desolation as a playground and the ruin as an element to reclaim in this collaboration. The series interrogates the multiple layers of symbolism in the built and natural landscape, colonial architecture’s redefinition over time, and the blurring of lines between reality and myth. The themes her work explores are of poignant relevance to today’s world – the quest for a symbiosis between urban development and the natural environment, the state’s failure to uplift communities at the margins, and negotiating relationships between the colonial past and a post-colonial present and future. Through her practice, Djamil never ceases to confront the complexity of people vis-à-vis their physical environment.
The title of the series refers to Tarfaya not by its name, but rather its close proximity to Spain’s Canary Islands, the approximate location of where the mythical Atlantis is rumored to be. The title also likens Tarfaya to the fictional island nation – a fitting relation given that, like Atlantis, it is shrouded in mystery and often described as “apocalyptic” or “the abandoned world.” Working in an environment where interest in street photography and its candid, unmediated images of Moroccan daily life have exploded in the past decade, Imane Djamil stands out from her peers for her use of “docu-fiction” to capture reality while simultaneously introducing fictional scenarios to strengthen its representation through a form of artistic expression.
(Tina Barouti, Ph.D candidate at Boston University, art historian and curator) 

Photographer: Imane Djamil
Nationality: moroccan
Based in: Casablanca, Morocco
Website: www.imanedjamil.com
Instagram: @idjamil

Imane Djamil (b.1996 in Casablanca, Morocco) is a self-taught Casablanca-based artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans photography, performance, storytelling, and creative-writing. Her work straddles a very fine line between reality and the sublime in what she calls ‘mental geographies,’ where contingent and cross-cultural worlds interpenetrate through a strategy of narrative assemblage to create new topographies. Her work, which is located at the crossroads of intimate autofiction and visual tales, explores places in ‘post-traumatic transition,’ where History engenders a metaphorical dialogue with personal and political anecdotes. As a nomad, it is in her practice where she finds refuge to poetically inhabit ephemeral spaces.
Djamil has participated in several residencies including Escales liées at The French Pavilion of the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2018, Mujeres y el Mediterraneo in 2019 at the Casa Mediterraneo in Alicante, Spain in 2019,  and most recently the the Summer’s Lab at le Cube- Independent Art Room in Rabat, Morocco  in 2020. Her work has been exhibited throughout Europe and Morocco, most notably as part of  Le Maroc Contemporain at Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, France in 2014 and, En un instante Marruecos at the Casa Arabe as part of PhotoESPAÑA’s official selection in 2018. She has co-founded – alongside photographers M’hammed Kilito, Yasmine Hatimi and Seif Kousmate– KOZ collective in 2020. 

Prizes, grants
2021
New Narratives in Environmental Photography Prize by Festival Photo La Gacilly & Fisheye Magazine/Gallery
All-Around Culture research grant by the European Union and L’Art Rue

Exhibitions
2021
Tempus Fugit, Abderrahman Slaoui Museum, group show- Casablanca
80 Miles to Atlantis, CDA Gallery, solo show- Casablanca     
2020
Tempus Fugit, Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL), group show- Casablanca
2019 
En Un Instante Marruecos, Bienal de Fotografia de Cordoba, Casa Arabe, group show- Cordoba
2018
En Un Instante Marruecos, Fundaciòn Tres Culturas del Mediterràneo, group show- Sevilla
Le Maroc sur le vif, Musée de Mouassine, group show- Marrakech
Escales liées, IgloùPARIS, Villette Makerz, Paris
En Un Instante Marruecos, PHotoESPAÑA, Casa Arabe, group show- Madrid
Ana Hunna, an initiative promoting women in the economy in Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, Fabrique culturelle des abattoirs- Casablanca
Festival Traits d’Union, Théâtre El Duende, solo show- Ivry-sur-Seine
2017
Dasthe gallery, solo show- Casablanca
30 under 30 women photographers, The Popping Club, group show- Rome
L’Uzine, Fondation Touria et Abdelaziz Sekkat, solo show- Casablanca
2016
AAF, Musée Juif de Belgique, group show- Brussels
La Selva de l’Art, Festival internacional d’art contemporani, group show- La Selva de Mar, Giro
Contemporary art fair, HAUPT, group show- Basel
Todos os géneros preferidos, all gender preferred, Manpower festival, group show- Lisbon
Au delà de l’héritage, Paroisse Saint-Pierre de Montmartre, group show- Paris
L’Art Engage, Le 6B, group show- Paris
Visions Urbaines, Espace des arts sans frontières, group show- Paris
2015
Où s’harmonisent le pin, la frayeur et moi-même, galerie SometimeStudio, solo show- Paris
Passages, parages, visages, paysages. Les nouvelles créations artistiques au Maroc, Musée de Bank Al Maghrib, group show– Rabat