Genesis

The story of dar el imzad

The project to build Dar El Imzad was set down among the recommendations of the international imzad symposium in March 2005.

A general assembly was held in June 2005 to approve the report and the accounts sent to all the sponsors and to the wilaya. It was agreed that we would gather again at the end of the year. On 13 December 2005: the construction project “Dar El Imzad” was adopted unanimously.

A file was submitted to the Property Directorate of the wilaya of Tamanrasset.

A payment schedule was drawn up over four years.

Our challenge was set.

DAR EL-IMZAD
THE INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF ARTISTS

will be the relay point of the Trans-Saharan route

passing through Tamanrasset,

a cultural capital and a place of convergence

of the musical and cultural modes

of Sub-Saharan Africa. »

Five kilometres from the town centre of Tamanrasset, on the road to l’Assekrem, Dar El-Imzad, the International House of Artists, comes into being.

Dar El-Imzad is destined to be a space of cultural creation dedicated to the artists of the world and to those enamoured of the traditional arts of the deserts. The complex comprises workshops devoted to the making of Touareg craftwork and of Imzad, others intended for Tifinagh, for song, for imzad poetry and for other expressions (the Tazemart flute, the Tindey drum…).

Dar El-Imzad will be equipped with a stage for music concerts, a studio for audio-visual production, a computer area, a media library, a museum and shops. National and international artists (musicians, painters, sculptors, writers…) may be welcomed in residence.

Sustainable development: Within the fight against poverty, shared wealth, fair trade and a tourism “of the future” suited to the region, the aim was to generate activity and to create lasting employment for women and the young, while safeguarding the ancestral culture and reviving tourism and craftwork in the Grand Sud… All that remained was for me to draw up the project.

I was with Seddik Khetali, and that day I said to him: “This will be the heart of our imzad museum”.

The project was in my head, to the great astonishment of all the members, but I was determined and I gave up all professional activity to devote myself entirely to Dar el Imzad.

Rock engravings beneath the rubbish.

Dar El Imzad — site and vision of the project

The engravings of Dar el Imzad

Dar El Imzad — the project in pictures

Dar El Imzad — project slide — photo 1 of 12

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Plan of action

Construction of the enclosure wall in preparation for the second international Imzad gathering of 2010.

To awaken interest and set awareness in motion, I had to draw up, together with the members of the association, a plan of action, defining the objectives to be reached, evaluating them and planning them over time.

Cultural and scientific gatherings at Dar el Imzad were set down each year. We kept our sponsors loyal thanks to the transparency of the reports and the audits carried out. The results on the ground and, above all, the image proudly borne by the Association Sauver l’Imzad were our leitmotiv.

Under the attentive eye of the young and old imzad artists, Cosider worked day and night.

On 11/11/11, we had to inaugurate the first phase: the handover of the classrooms.

The construction and the spaces — Restaurant, Museum, Entrance, Stage frame, Accommodation, Cafeteria, Artist’s room