Salima El Mandjra

Salima S. El Mandjra, a graduate of the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris and holder of a Master degree in Landscape Architecture, currently teaches at the National School of Architecture in Rabat.

She inquires the way the evolution of social and cultural values is revealed through dynamics that animate the transformations of the configuration and practice of urban spaces, as well as that of the representations of heritage and urban landscape. The observation of social and spatial appropriations leads her to focus on the position women occupy in contemporary societies, and on gender aspects on a larger scale.

Seen as imprints that reveal the perception of a space-time, contemporary art and literature also stimulate her reflection on socio-cultural changes. These aspects also help to nourish the approach she develops in an architecture studio.

One of her objectives is to lead students to conceive their environment in a way that transcends appearances, and to consider humans as living beings. The role that the field of pedagogy plays in the transmission of knowledge in architecture is also an essential subject of her inquiry.

Recent interventions

• Member of the jury of the photographic competition Regard sur le portrait immatériel de Rabat-Salé, Association Rabat-Salé mémoire, March 2019,
• HERstory, curated by Julie Crenn and Pascal Lièvre, Le Cube – independent art room, February 2018,
• Member of the jury of the photographic contest Lumière sur le patrimoine de Rabat-Salé, Association Rabat-Salé mémoire, April 2018,
• Jury member, during the 4^th edition of the competition of short films Ana Maghribi (a), French Institute of Morocco, in November 2017,
• Participation in the project “Féminisme au quotidien” with the artist Anna Raimondo, Exhibition Nous serons sérieuses de la manière la plus heureuse, Le Cube, Rabat, 21 March 2017-20 April 2017,
• Les traces de l’invisible, interview with Abdessamad Montassir, Paroles d’artistes directed by Sarah Dornhof, Goethe-Institut Rabat, January 2016,
• L’ê/Être au sud, sound piece presented at the public listening session Saout as a state of mind # 3 curated by Saout radio with Anna Raimondo and Elisabeth Zimmerman, Le Cube, May 2016.

Recent publications

• Meddeb at the confluence of knowledge, March 2019.
• Landscape cities: filling the gaps, February 2018.
• The being in itself, this plural so singular, Le Cube 2017-18, 2018, pp.14-21.
• The Horizon of Smiles, Khbar Bladna Edition, 2017.
• In the city: from place to connections? Le tissu de nos singularités, Vivre ensemble au Maroc, under the direction of Fadma Aït Mouss and Driss Ksikes, En toutes lettres, February 2016, p.191-201.
• L’espace du possible, Femmes et religions Points de vue de femmes du Maroc, designed and directed by Hakima Lebbar, Editions la croisée des chemins, and Fan Dok, November 2014, p.173-175.
• Beyond appearances, the archi-artist of diversion, exhibition catalogue “compression art recup” by Azzedine Baddou, villa des arts, Casablanca, May-July 2013, p.24-25.