The making Of Worlds

The Strait of Gibraltar separates the Moroccan from the Spanish coasts to link the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. This mythical passage marks, as much as it symbolizes, the separation of two continents.

Since the 19th century, architects, engineers and politicians have planned the construction of a permanent link between the two shores. All projects failed at the latest at the end of the first experimental phases, undermined by unsurmountable technical, economical, and political problems.

Today, the construction of a tunnel between Tangier in the eastern Moroccan Rif and Tarifa in the very south of the province of Cadiz is again under consideration. It’s upon reading a report, dating from 2009, established by the United Nations Economic and Social Council, that the following sentence struck me : « The tunnel under the Strait represents more than just a technical feat — the project is not simply infrastructure linking two continents, it is also a service offered to very large and transnational groups of people. ». Which links could exist between these « transnational groups of people » separated by a sea passage being 14.4 kilometres wide and 300 meters deep?

I thus decided to cover the territory of the two cities of the Strait - Tangier and Tarifa - which the current tunnel project plans to link. In addition to the photographies and sound recordings taken on this occasion, I collected archive and news documents, which are in tune with the past and present history of these global cities.

The multi-media project « The making Of Worlds - version I » originates from this tentative to construct a coherent world from these composite fragments.