Aesthetics of Decolonization – The Magazine <i>Souffles</i> (1966–1972)

Abstract The magazine Souffles was published by intellectuals and poets in Morocco from 1966 to 1972. It functioned as a node, medium, and interface in the intellectual, political and artistic production of a post-colonial subjectivity. Going beyond existing studies of Souffles that mainly looked on its relevance for literature production in Morocco, this article highlights the contributions by visual artists and transnational solidarity movements for the magazine’s translocal constitution. This includes encounters, relations and transfers between radical art and political discourses and practices, as well as the transnational context in which the magazine’s post-colonial aesthetic proposals emerged. The article is based on insights conducted in a research project with the same title that studies the magazine’s polyphone character in a trans-disciplinary manner. It combines artistic research, interviews and conversations looking closely at the visual and aesthetic proposals as well as written testimonies in dialogue with a socio-political reading of the publication, considering as well recent theories on aesthetics and concepts developed in the field of postcolonial studies.