Parabomobile: a bike with 21 satellite dishes

Parabomobile is a living sculpture: a man rides a Peugeot 103 along a partly constructed road near Marrakech while carrying 21 satellite dishes, each pointing a different way. The pile of receivers overwhelms the rider, leaving him unable to choose a direction and effectively going nowhere.

The image forms part of Paraboles, a multidisciplinary inquiry into Moroccan identity, imagination and how people see the world. Satellite dishes became a recurring emblem for the project, prompting the creation of a fictional Hertzian Republic — named for radio frequency — in which exiles pursue a mirage of a better future.

The wider work includes texts, installations and a short film of pilgrimages to places seen on screens, plus goat-skin passports that close when cold and open when hot, and an invented 72-letter language tied to 72-megahertz waves. Baddou grew up in Rabat in a diplomatic family and attended a French school, while her grandfather played a key role in the French Protectorate (1912-56).

Morocco, Marrakech, Rabat

parabomobile, satellite dishes, paraboles, moroccan identity, hertzian republic, peugeot 103, marrakech, goat-skin passports, 72-letter language, baddou