A project by lens artist MAryam Touzani tells the story of the challenges faced by third-generation immigrant displacement. Touzani explores the heritage of the Amazigh people in the Netherlands and Morocco, examining spaces of cultural overlap, conflict and rupture, revealing hidden narratives of belonging and erasure. Her practice uses photography and archival materials to question how history is preserved or silenced, while creating new visual languages that embrace absence, resilience and survival. Her series “Maktub” began with a sense of frustration and reflections on the Arabic word ?????? (pronounced Al-Ghorba), which can be translated as “far from home.” Moroccan immigrants often use it to express feelings of alienation intertwined with nostalgia:
“I grew up hearing stories of people leaving their homes in search of a better future. Moroccans in Europe bear a double burden. They suffer from racism, bigotry and Islamophobia from an early age. And we are still trying to weigh the balance between finding a sense of belonging in the country of our birth without giving up our heritage… By questioning myself and my experiences in my own way, I hope to move away from simplistic narratives and instead depict complexity and nuance. Through collage of symbols, texts and images, a poetic approach emerges to address these questions. The aim of my project is not to tell people about diasporic identity, nor to provide a linear story, but to take the viewer on a journey with questions that have no clear answers, but ambiguities.”
MAryam Touzani entered our Booooooom Art & Photography Book Awards 2025 and was shortlisted.
