International Traveling Festival
3rd Edition, Under the Theme:
From March 26 to 28, 2026, Beni Mellal and Afourer will host the third edition of the International Traveling Festival The Body in Motion (Le Corps en mouvement). This edition is dedicated to the theme “The Mother: Body in Motion.” The festival examines maternal identity as a changing and active condition that remains central to contemporary cultural, artistic, and political debates.
The event is organized through a collaboration between the Narration and Cultural Forms Laboratory at Sultan Moulay Slimane University, the Al Intilaka Association, the Regional Directorate of Culture, and the DV Association of Marseille. Together, these partners propose a critical reexamination of motherhood beyond idealized or fixed representations.
Throughout history, maternal figures have often been represented through static and normative images. These images have emphasized sacrifice, silence, and permanence. However, such representations have frequently excluded lived experience and bodily change.
The third edition of the festival challenges these conventions. It approaches the mother as a body that changes across time, space, and social conditions. Therefore, motherhood is understood as a process rather than a stable role. This perspective allows for an analysis of movement, fatigue, desire, resistance, and agency within maternal experience.
Pregnancy, the postpartum period, and aging are moments of profound bodily transformation. These experiences involve physical, emotional, and social change. The festival examines how such transformations are perceived and narrated from within the body itself.
Contemporary motherhood often unfolds within systems of medical and institutional oversight. As a result, the maternal body can become subject to regulation and surveillance. Academic sessions address the tension between medical intervention and bodily autonomy. Researchers analyze how care, control, and individual choice interact within maternal health practices.
The traveling structure of the festival reflects its thematic focus on movement. Migration and displacement shape many maternal experiences in the present global context. Mothers often navigate unfamiliar territories while maintaining family continuity and cultural memory.
By situating the festival in the Beni Mellal-Khénifra region, these questions are addressed within a local context that has long been marked by migration and mobility.
Artistic programming forms a central component of the festival. Dance, performance, visual arts, and media practices offer forms of knowledge that differ from academic discourse. These practices foreground physical effort, constraint, endurance, and expression.
Contemporary performances challenge the assumption that motherhood limits artistic presence. Instead, they examine how maternal experience generates new forms of movement and expression across the life course.
The festival also focuses on oral, written, and performative narratives. Maternal bodies carry memory through gesture, posture, and sensation. Workshops and readings explore how personal testimony becomes shared knowledge.
By bringing together researchers, artists, and practitioners, the festival encourages dialogue across disciplines. Academic analysis and artistic creation are presented side by side. In addition, partnerships between Moroccan and international institutions support exchange across cultural contexts.
This format enables comparative perspectives on motherhood, aging, movement, and resistance, while avoiding a single dominant framework.
The festival is organized around multiple formats that invite participation and discussion:
Researchers, artists, and practitioners are invited to contribute to this edition of The Body in Motion. Contributions may take the form of academic papers, performances, workshops, or artistic projects that engage with maternal embodiment, movement, and transformation.
Participation in Beni Mellal and Afourer offers an opportunity to engage in a collective reflection on motherhood as a creative and political force.