Visual artist Julie Chovin, in residence at Le Cube, develops her personal project Kodieet Soltane in partnership with the Institut Français du Maroc and the Institut Français de Meknes.

Inspired by her family memories, the project is a quest that navigates the search for land and a lost ideal, while exploring the complex relationships between geopolitical structures and individual histories. The project investigates the mutual impact of these two dimensions.

When Julie Chovin’s family acquired their land, they were aware of its temporary and precarious nature. These parcels, derived from colonial Moroccan lands, had been transformed and enhanced according to the capitalist agricultural models of the time. Yet the origins of these lands— taken from local tribes and communal territories—remain largely obscure. Their presence in North Africa contributed to Europe’s economic and geopolitical expansion, particularly that of France, but often at the cost of rights and freedoms for others.

The project does not aim to provide a single historical narrative. Rather, it seeks to intertwine multiple perspectives through collaboration with other artists, researchers from various fields, and even non-human entities. Its primary goal is less about historical analysis than the sensitive and emotional transmission of complex family stories, making visible the personal dimensions of broader historical and cultural processes.