How the place was born
By reinventing her family home, Emilie founded Mâwa Art Space: a place of welcome, renewal and artistic creation. This cultural centre is conceived as an immersive interlude in Morocco, where encounter, movement, listening and the practice of the arts intersect to offer everyone a space for personal and collective exploration. At once an artist residency, a centre for workshops and arts practice, and a space for creation, care and training, Mâwa Art Space is an invitation to share and to slow down.
Its name, “Mâwa”, is an Arabic word (مأوى) meaning “refuge”, “haven”. Nestled in the heart of a peaceful douar in the Essaouira region, among the argan trees, moving to the rhythm of pastoral life, the working of the land and the know-how of local artisans, Mâwa Art Space is conceived as a “creative shelter”, a protective and welcoming space for artists, designed to offer them a physical and mental sanctuary dedicated to artistic expression and cultural sharing.
Emilie Edelman
A clinical psychologist with more than twenty years of experience, Emilie places artistic expression and the body at the heart of her therapeutic and creative approach. Trained in art therapy and arts-based mediation, she explores the convergences between psychology, psychoanalysis and psycho-corporal work, while actively committing herself to passing these disciplines on.
Alongside her clinical practice and her work as a trainer, Emilie nurtures a deep passion for dance. Trained with masters of West African dance and introduced to Afro-contemporary dance, she draws from these disciplines a vivid energy that she brings back into her work. Emilie sees movement as a privileged path of expression and transformation. She regularly leads body expression workshops, where therapeutic support and artistic creation come together.
Had Dra and its surroundings in pictures
From the view from the terrace, where the house nestles among the argan trees, to the crossroads of stony paths, in the heart of the village of Had Dra with its souk and its daily life. Less than 5 kilometres away rises the spring that runs through this land. Taking a picturesque coastal road, we reach the wild ocean in about ten kilometres.
