International Traveling Festival
3rd Edition, Under the Theme:
The third edition of the traveling international festival Le Corps en mouvement, held from March 26 to 28, 2026, in the Béni Mellal-Khénifra region, reflects a dynamic intersection of academic research, contemporary artistic practices, and cultural engagement. This edition, dedicated to the theme “The Mother: Body in Motion,” aimed to examine motherhood not only as a biological and social experience but also as a cultural and symbolic construct in constant evolution.
The main objective of the event was to offer a multidisciplinary reflection on the figure of the mother, emphasizing the bodily dimension of motherhood. The festival was organized in collaboration with Sultan Moulay Slimane University, the Narration and Cultural Forms Laboratory, and several Moroccan and international institutional and associative partners. This cooperation allowed the festival to be positioned within both academic and artistic perspectives, fostering dialogue between researchers, artists, and students.
The program took place in several cultural and university spaces, notably the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, the House of Culture, and various cultural centers in the region. The opening ceremony was followed by an inaugural lecture on the place of the mother in contemporary Moroccan society, providing a theoretical framework for all activities offered during the three days.
The festival was structured around two main components:
a scientific conference, organized in the form of thematic sessions;
an artistic and participatory program, including workshops, choreographic performances, and artistic interventions.
The conference “The Mother: Body in Motion” brought together several presentations on the representation of the maternal body in literature, cinema, visual arts, and contemporary Moroccan culture.
The different sessions addressed a variety of themes, such as:
motherhood in Moroccan and postcolonial literature;
the representation of the maternal body in contemporary artistic productions;
the social and cultural transformations of the mother’s role in Morocco;
the relationship between body, memory, and cultural transmission.
These presentations helped highlight the complexity of the maternal figure, presented no longer as a fixed symbol, but as a space of tension between individual identity, social norms, and artistic expression.
Alongside the scientific presentations, the festival gave significant space to artistic practices. Several dance, illustration, and body expression workshops were organized, as well as choreographic and theatrical performances. This performative dimension allowed the theoretical reflection to be complemented by a sensitive approach to the maternal body, conceived as a space of experience, transmission, and creation.
This third edition of the festival strengthened the dialogue between academic research and artistic creation in the Moroccan context. It also contributed to opening a critical reflection space on motherhood, going beyond traditional representations to highlight a dynamic vision of the female body and maternal identity.
The festival Le Corps en mouvement – The Mother: Body in Motion constitutes an important cultural and scientific initiative in the Béni Mellal-Khénifra region. Through the diversity of its interventions and the richness of its program, it provided an in-depth reflection on motherhood as a social, cultural, and artistic reality. This edition thus confirms the festival’s role as a space for interdisciplinary dialogue and the promotion of contemporary artistic practices.