MEJHOUL MEDJOOL

Laila Hida’s long-term project explores fantasised representations of palm trees, the desert, and oases in Western popular culture. Hida focuses on the date palm, collecting screenshots, press cuttings, postcards, and souvenir objects, and delving into literature and scientific texts, in order to trace its peregrinations. She has travelled extensively, even in time. Starting from colonial Morocco, she followed this tree first to the French Riviera and then across the Atlantic to California. The date palm has become a symbol comprising multiple layers of historical narrative and collective myths, from 19th-century travel literature to painting, photography, cinema, and beyond.