The Urban as a Tool
Figure 1. Sketch of mentioned street and shops in Fes
Wesam Al Asali
Fes, Morocco
If you walk around Fes in the evenings or early mornings, when the city is less busy than usual, you might come across lines of colours stretching through the narrow streets. Tens of strings conform to the walls of the old Medina waggling between windows and doors, fixed by nails, door joints, or whatever sticks out from the walls. These long strings are loose fibres, artisans chase their ends braiding them into a decorative thread for dresses. Because it is a process that needs a space larger than any workshop, the braiders use the city as their tool, using the walls to do their four hour work in the evening after negotiating the city's time, schedule, and availability. For a moment, the fibre strings become public and braiding is then a performance for curios tourists, a performance without heritage preservationists, curators , cultural programmes, regulations , nor funders , it is formed by the activities of everyday life - making living.
