The collaboration between Zouhair and Fiona Dowling, the Irish-French
storyteller, was a cornerstone of
the
Yarn Storytelling Festival
in
Ireland. In September 2024, Fiona spent several weeks in Marrakech, engaging deeply with
Zouhair on
stories rooted in heritage and ancestry as a part of Yarn's residency program. Their
creative exchange
culminated in a duo performance titled Stories Over the Hill, held at the
World
Storytelling Café.The dialogue between them in
November, Zouhair
traveled to Ireland
to participate as an international artist at the Yarn Festival, where their
collaboration evolved further. The
final result was a co-created performance—officially titled Djinn in the Fairies' Hill,
though affectionately
referred to by Zouhair as Fairies in the Hammam and a Djinn in Dublin. The show
illuminated the shared
mythologies of Morocco and Ireland, weaving together folklore to reveal unexpected
common ground with
a core question: What if Fiona brings Irish Fairies to a Hammam and I take a Moroccan
Djinn to Ireland.
Through their collaboration, Fiona and Zouhair unearthed new perspectives on the
cultural and historical
connections between their two countries.