They are called ‘Ali Baba express’: these transporters which are travelling from Morocco to Europe. For the event, dried verbena leaves are brought back from Morocco. The delivery is unloaded at the bar Le Sprint and the public can use, drink infusions of verbena while having talks about the building and its history. This package delivery system, from Morocco to Europe, is existing for several years. Prices are very low (2€ per Kg in France, for instance in Marseille sometimes prices drop to 1€ per Kg, 1,5€ in Turin or 3€ in Amsterdam). Transporters' phone numbers are exchanged between halal butchers, kebab vendors and hair salons. In Casablanca, all these transporters are located in small shops on the Mediouna road in the periphery of the city. Thanks to these constant and regular exchanges, it is possible to find products such as Aicha jam in Brussels, Khli3 (dried meat) in Saint-Etienne, or Hawaï and Pom’s (local lemonade) in Utrecht. This informal economy attests of a certain globalization, while having a specific clientele. But it is also an economy of memory, of flavor. To drink the verbena of a childhood memory in a place which is closed now but re-opens for the event.

Photos: Michael Colle

Ghita Skali brings to light an underground transport economy that connects Morocco to numerous places in Europe. Through mediating the transportation of verbena tea leaves to the museum, she creates an intervention in the exhibition space in which the audience is given the opportunity to take verbena tea home. The title of the work, Ali Baba Express: Episode 2, is an adaptation of the name of the famous Chinese e-commerce website and a reappropriation of a stereotypical reference to Arab culture as an empowering and emancipating name for the way the tea is brought to the museum. Through an informal exchange of telephone numbers between carriers and sellers from different places in Morocco, products— such as verbena tea, Aicha jam, khlii (dried meat), and Pom's (local lemonade)—are available throughout the Netherlands and other places in Europe for a low price. Skali's work depicts a system in which supply and demand is driven by an economy centered on memory and reliving memories through taste, asking questions such as: Why is a taste more intense when you know your access is limited?

verbena tea, disposable gloves, metal dispensers, plastic bags and cardboard boxes used during transportation courtesy of the artist, this project has been made in collaboration with Abdeslam Amdiaze.

You may take the verbena tea following the illustrated instructions.

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Curated by: Irene Calderoni and Bernardo Follini 
With: Marwan Arsanios, Carolina Caycedo, Eclectic Electric Collective / Tools for Action, Andreas Gursky, Arthur Jafa, Sara Leghissa, Sandra Mujinga, Muna Mussie, Rory Pilgrim, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Ghita Skali, Alberto Tadiello, Artur Zmijewski

“Heaps of verbena leaves are piled up in various places throughout the Palais de Tokyo. Fragrant and invasive, the verbena acts like a virus that spreads throughout the building. Ghita Skali imported this stock of verbena – some 200kg – through a makeshift transMediterranean network between Morocco and France that she humorously refers to as Ali Baba Express . Word of mouth, neighborhood connections and shopkeepers’ know-how enable the Moroccan diaspora in France to source foodstuffs from their home country at the lowest possible prices. With this installation, Ghita Skali extends this network into the exhibition space to include the visitors themselves, putting on display an informal economy of olfactory memory.
Ghita Skali’s artistic practice is animated less by a material production than by processes of circulation: the circulation of knowledge, of rumors', of fables and of symbols. This new instalment of the series Ali Baba Express is conceived as an underground infiltration, and echoes the immaterial nature of the work by Florence Jung presented in the exhibition.
As part of the work, Ghita Skali has installed several “vending machines” containing pairs of gloves. Shaped like rabbit’s ears, they allow visitors to scoop up the verbena leaves. These gloves are in fact the kind used in gynecology or proctology for examining the body’s orifices. Turned inside out, they become sachets ready to package the loose leaves. In this, the gloves blur the limits between interior and exterior, container and content, giving further form to the exhibition’s overarching metaphor that links national borders and the boundaries of the body.”

“Ghita Skali brings to light an underground transport economy that connects Morocco to numerous places in Europe. Through mediating the transportation of three hundred kilos of verbena tea leaves to the Kunsthal Extra City, she creates an intervention in which the audience is given the opportunity to take verbena tea home. The title of the work, Ali Baba Express: Episode 4, is an adaptation of the name of the famous Chinese e-commerce website and a reappropriation of a stereotypical reference to Arab culture as an empowering and emancipating name for the way the tea is brought to the museum. Through conversations with Moroccan communities in Antwerp and an informal exchange of telephone numbers between carriers and sellers from different places in Morocco, products— such as verbena tea, Aicha jam, khlii (dried meat), and Pom's (local lemonade)—are available throughout Europe for a low price. Skali's work depicts a system in which supply and demand is driven by an economy centered on memory and reliving memories through taste, asking questions such as: Why is a taste more intense when you know your access is limited?
Ali Baba Express: Episode 4 is an example of how Ghita Skali’s (MA, 1992) practice brings in realities that exist outside the arts and empowers other realities through her work, consisting of installations, interventions, performances, and video. Her projects have recently been shown at été 78 (Brussels), 18 (Marrakech), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam) and Palais de Tokyo (Paris). She lives and works in Amsterdam.”

Text by Joachim Naudts

Curated by: Joachim Naudts
With artists: Monira Al Qadiri, Sammy Baloji, Lisa Barnard, CATPC, Yelena Popova, Raqs Media Collective and Bert Villa.

Rumors, verbena tea leaves, transportation bags

Qualcosa nell’aria / Something in the air