Aicha Josefa Trinidad Gououi

Exchange residence between LE 18 and Hangar

April - May 2024

Aicha’s work explores the potential of first-person writing and personal experiences to generate knowledge both inside and outside academia. She is currently working on her thesis titled Resistances of Knowledge, a curatorial project aimed at fostering a queer, feminist, and anti-colonial dialogue between Spain and Morocco. Her way of working includes diary writing, storytelling, drawing stories, and other accessible forms of expression, with a central theme in all her productions being her connection to the working class, to which she belongs. Aicha Trinidad is part of the collective Al’Akhawat, made up of six artists from the Spain-Morocco diaspora.

Qisas (قصص, Tales) is the project developed by Aicha Josefa Trinidad Gououi during her residency at LE 18. It is connected to the writing of her thesis, in which she collects oral stories and lived experiences to write short tales that will serve as chapters for her final doctoral dissertation. Thus, it will be an academic thesis composed through narratives often regarded as “minor knowledges.” Using storytelling as a method not only democratizes writing but also challenges traditional academic thesis norms. To frame the emerging themes, Aicha will initially highlight the starting point: the belief in belonging to what she terms the Brotherhood Generation. This cohort comprises young Maghrebis whose work is steeped in anti-colonialism, feminism, and queer advocacy from North African contexts. It also includes daughters of the North African and Spanish diaspora who confront structural racism and embrace North African diasporic culture from a transnational perspective.