{"id":30795,"date":"2024-01-01T17:16:04","date_gmt":"2024-01-01T15:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/?p=30795"},"modified":"2024-01-01T17:18:58","modified_gmt":"2024-01-01T15:18:58","slug":"our-picks-of-2023-along-with-palestinian-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/our-picks-of-2023-along-with-palestinian-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Picks of 2023, Along with Palestinian Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking back on 2023, we asked each other, out of this year’s 250 stories and 10 monthly issues, which were your favorites? which do you continue thinking about? Here are the editors’ selections.<\/h4>\n

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Rana Asfour, Managing Editor<\/h4>\n


\n<\/strong>My favorite essay from 2023 is “Death is a Traitor: Living the Morocco Earthquake from the US<\/a>” by Brahim El Guabli in which El Guabli, a Moroccan Amazigh scholar from southern Morocco teaching in the States, urgently tries to reach family in Ouarzazate after a frantic message from his distraught sister following the 6.8 earthquake that hit the Atlas Mountains region. The earthquake had caused widespread damage in the provinces and municipalities of al-Haouz, Marrakesh, Ouarzazate, Azilal, Chichaoua and Taroudant. “It\u2019s an untimely death that wipes out so many lives instantly and leaves no time for goodbyes or even for an understanding of what happened for both the dead and their survivors. An earthquake that strikes at night while people have returned to the safety of their homes is even more treacherous. It is a form of treason that brings death where it is not expected; in the sanctity of one\u2019s bedroom.”<\/p>\n

My favorite issue for 2023: I really enjoyed TMR 36 \u2022 ARCHITECTURE<\/a>. It was very timely. The region had suffered much destruction because of high scale natural disasters related to climate change. And so many cities were discussing the idea of reconstruction and rebuilding<\/a> while negotiating how much of the past architecture was to be preserved and juxtaposing that with new architectural designs and methods currently adopted around the world, without compromising the region’s identity. Added to that was the anticipation of the upcoming COP28 in November in Dubai and the second\u00a0International Sharjah Architectural Biennale<\/a>\u00a0in October. Therefore subjects like\u00a0distortions of a city<\/a>\u00a0as written by intellectual\u00a0Hisham Bustani<\/a> with photographs by Linda Al Khoury shed light on the fissures (to the city and its people) that materialize when a city \u2014like Amman\u2014”happens” without proper planning and design. The ARCHITECTURE<\/a>\u00a0issue investigated the breadth of the concept of architecture not only literally but also allegorically through the fiction pieces submitted by writers for the issue that revolved around ‘architecting’ a region’s identity and narrative through its\u00a0literature<\/a>,\u00a0art<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0fashion<\/a>.<\/p>\n