From the 1930s on, colonial North Africa was transformed into a laboratory for European modernization fantasies. Casablanca was seen as a test case for the 'city of tomorrow', radical redevelopment plans included. The developments projected were envisaged as a blueprint for Europe's metropolises, too, and intended to reform the way people lived. In the Desert of Modernity presents works of architecture and urban concepts that arose under the state of emergency that was colonial rule, a state influenced, in turn, by the anti-colonial liberation struggles and trans-national migration in North Africa and Western Europe.
The exhibition introduces and expounds the problems of the ambivalences between colonial rule and modernistic Utopias. In how far are Utopias of modernism and civilization rooted in colonialism? In how far have the breaks within and resistance against colonialism left their mark on modernism? The exhibition also provides tangible evidence of the events, projects, actions, and visions that played a significant role during the time of decolonization between North Africa and Europe, and are still of significance today. It traces the stories of the local inhabitants, architects, colonialists, and scholars involved in the project of modernity and modernization.
The exhibition introduces and expounds the problems of the ambivalences between colonial rule and modernistic Utopias. In how far are Utopias of modernism and civilization rooted in colonialism? In how far have the breaks within and resistance against colonialism left their mark on modernism? The exhibition also provides tangible evidence of the events, projects, actions, and visions that played a significant role during the time of decolonization between North Africa and Europe, and are still of significance today. It traces the stories of the local inhabitants, architects, colonialists, and scholars involved in the project of modernity and modernization.
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