With artworks by Younes Ben Slimane, M’barek Bouhchichi, Lungiswa Gqunta, David Grandorge, El Mahdi Meslil and Alexander Cyrus Poulikakos

A collaboration with the Chair of History and Theory of Urban Design (gta), Institute of Urban Landscape (IUL), ZHAW School of Architecture, Design and Civil Engineering, MAMMA Memory of Modern Moroccan Architects and Zamân Books & Curating

The exhibition Built from Dust – Earth, Soil and the Modern Afropolis will serve as a forum for discussing the capacities and challenges of the Afropolis, reflecting not only on the often untold history of these African cities, but also holding up a mirror to the complex and frequently contested urban realities they have created.

Zamân Books & Curating Curatorial Statement (extract)
Through their multimedia works and installations, the contemporary guest artists from Moroccan, Tunisian and South African backgrounds will stimulate a thought-provoking dialogue around the archival landscape of the exhibition Built From Dust and the concept of the modern Afropolis. Can the city be modern and vernacular at the same time, rooted in both the past and the present? Furthermore, can it be a sustainable city in terms of an architecture of common good and shared space? How can contemporary art practices contribute to the conceptual flexibility of the modern Afropolis, turning it into a site of exchange to reconsider the universality and functionality of modernist architecture on the African continent?

Artworks:
Younes Benslimane, All Come From Dust, 2019
M’barek Bouhchichi, Terra, 2024
Lungiswa Gqunta, Assemble the Disappearing, Site Unseen, 2025