ADRIAN SCHINDLER AND COLLABORATORS. TETUAN, TETUÁN, تطوان

The Museo CA2M presents Tetuan, Tetuán, تطوان, an exhibition by Franco-German artist Adrian Schindler, structured around a trilogy of films produced between 2018 and 2025 in Spain and Morocco. The exhibition broadens the interpretative framework through which to view the work of this artist, which forms part of the Museo CA2M Collection. The three films, presented within scenographic structures and in dialogue with works on paper, offer insight into a practice that takes the form of films, performances, reading groups, round-table discussions and installations.

Drawing on critical theoretical frameworks, Adrian Schindler has developed a collaborative working ethos in which archival documents serve as performative instruments for exploring the ways in which the past continues to shape contemporary power relations. From a non-linear perspective, he examines different European historical legacies linked to processes of expansion and domination, often through the prism of biography.

Tetuán, Tetuán, تطوان reflects on Spain’s colonial past in Morocco and the traces it has left in our society through an experimental, collaborative methodology that addresses cultural production, public space, and the social imaginary. Created in three cities in dialogue with Moroccan and Spanish cultural agents, each of the three chapters explores narrative strategies for resignifying places such as Barcelona’s Plaça Tetuan, Madrid’s Tetuán de las Victorias district and the Cinéma Teatro Español in the Moroccan city of Tétouan. Drawing on readings, songs, informal conversations and fictional scenes set beside monuments and in streets, cafés and institutions, the project advances the idea that oral forms of expression can resist hegemonic narratives and foster the emergence of alternative imaginaries.

The first chapter (Barcelona) examines the role of representation in structures of domination and the persistence of age-old stereotypes in contemporary audiovisual production. The second (Madrid) explores silenced historical events, their sociocultural consequences and modes of resistance expressed through song and music. The third chapter (Tétouan), revisits Moroccan nationalist plays from the 1930s, analysing the role they played in the independence movement in northern Morocco.

Produced in collaboration with Centre d’art Le Lait, Albi, the exhibition will continue its tour at the Kulte Center for Contemporary Art & Edition, Rabat, before travelling to Fotonoviembre 2027, organised by TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes.

The trilogy was produced by Lejos lejos together with Anna Manubens (Chapter 1) and Chi Films (Chapter 3), and was developed in collaboration with Salma Amazian, Nassim Azarzar, Abdelkarim Bentato, Fátima Bourhim Mesaoudi, Ali El Aziz, Rita El Jebari, Abdel Aziz El Mountassir, Ikram Essaghir, Itzea Goikolea-Amiano, Ibrahim Ibnou Goush, Huda Laamarti, La Guardia Mora, Sono Mayrit b2b Disco Atlas and Sara Mediouni.

ADRIAN SCHINDLER

Adrian Schindler (1989, Périgueux, France) currently lives and works in Marseille, having spent a decade in Spain. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions at institutions and independent venues such as Centre d’art Le Lait, Albi, France (2025), Mahal Art Space, Tangier (2025), La Casa Encendida, Madrid (2023), and The Green Parrot, Barcelona (2021), and in group exhibitions at Late Idea Dice, Madrid (2024), Collection Lambert, Avignon (2022), Fundación Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Madrid (2022), MACBA, Barcelona (2021), La Grande Halle de La Villette, Paris (2018), and La Capella, Barcelona (2017), among other locations. His films have been screened at festivals and institutions like BIENALSUR, MACCO, Oaxaca (2025), Cinémathèque de Tanger (2025), Art Explora Festival in Tangier and Málaga (2024), The Institute for Endotic Research, Berlin (2024), Filmoteca de Andalucía, Córdoba (2023), Cineteca, Madrid (2022), and FIDMarseille (2021). He has also presented performances, talks and public programmes at Empathy & Risk, London (2022), Fabra i Coats Centre d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (2021), Espositivo, Madrid (2021), FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims (2017), and Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany (2014).

Notable residencies include Bulegoa, Bilbao (2025), Darat al Funun, Amman (2024), SOMA, Mexico City (2024), UNIDEE Residency Programs at Cittadellarte, Biella, Italy (2023), Matadero Madrid (2022), Casa de Velázquez, Madrid (2020–2021), Château Nour, Brussels (2020), Le Centquatre, Paris (2014–2015), and ZK/U, Berlin (2012–2013). He holds an MA from the Institute for Art in Context – UdK Berlin and an MFA from the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris, and he studied performance at Columbia College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

CURATORIAL ADVISORS:
Jesús Alcaide and Nouha Ben Yebdri

WITH THE COLLABORATION OF: 

Madrid City Council, Casa de Velázquez, Centre d’art Le Lait, Centre national des arts plastiques, DRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Fondation des Artistes, Fundació “La Caixa”, Regional Government of Catalonia, MACBA, Matadero Madrid, Mophradat.
 

Supported by the DRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine Individual Creation Grant.