© Yasmine Benabdallah, Our success is in sharing space, 2021.
YASMINE BENABDALLAH
LOST, NOT TO BE FOUND
EN
A desire to keep, to record, not to forget. Finding beauty in knowledge, in memory, in transmission: a sense of belonging, of pertaining to a longer legacy. The feeling I get when looking at the ocean waves, knowing that tides are eternal.
How is one expected to have a sense of direction and of true existence, if amputated from their history? What happens when there are no past images of our own to look at, when so much was lost to modernity, when there are such gaps between the past and the future?
But also finding beauty in the things that get diluted with time, turn into tales, never to know which part was real and which wasn’t.
These are the thoughts that come to me upon thinking about my practice. At times, determined, and at others, self-questioning.
Are there ways we can respect the silences and the fantasized invisibility and yet reveal the silenced and the taboo? Then how do we show, and to whom?
How is one expected to have a sense of direction and of true existence, if amputated from their history? What happens when there are no past images of our own to look at, when so much was lost to modernity, when there are such gaps between the past and the future?
But also finding beauty in the things that get diluted with time, turn into tales, never to know which part was real and which wasn’t.
These are the thoughts that come to me upon thinking about my practice. At times, determined, and at others, self-questioning.
Are there ways we can respect the silences and the fantasized invisibility and yet reveal the silenced and the taboo? Then how do we show, and to whom?
FR Une envie de garder, de capturer, de ne pas oublier. Trouver de la beauté dans la connaissance, dans la mémoire, dans la transmission : un sentiment d'appartenance à un héritage, à une Histoire plus longue. La sensation que j'éprouve en regardant les vagues de l'océan, en sachant que les marées sont éternelles.
Comment une personne peut-elle avoir un sens de direction et d’existence véritable, si elle est amputée de son Histoire? Que se passe-t-il quand nous n’avons pas d'images du passé à regarder, quand tant de choses ont été perdues pour la modernité, quand il y a de tels écarts entre le passé et le futur?
Mais aussi trouver de la beauté dans les choses qui se diluent avec le temps, se transforment en contes, sans jamais savoir quelle partie était réelle et laquelle ne l’était pas.
Ce sont ces pensées qui me viennent en pensant à ma pratique. Parfois, déterminée, et d'autres fois, se remettant en question.
Y-a-t-il moyen de respecter les silences et l'invisibilité fantasmée tout en révélant ce qui est tu et tabou ? Alors comment montrer, et à qui?
Comment une personne peut-elle avoir un sens de direction et d’existence véritable, si elle est amputée de son Histoire? Que se passe-t-il quand nous n’avons pas d'images du passé à regarder, quand tant de choses ont été perdues pour la modernité, quand il y a de tels écarts entre le passé et le futur?
Mais aussi trouver de la beauté dans les choses qui se diluent avec le temps, se transforment en contes, sans jamais savoir quelle partie était réelle et laquelle ne l’était pas.
Ce sont ces pensées qui me viennent en pensant à ma pratique. Parfois, déterminée, et d'autres fois, se remettant en question.
Y-a-t-il moyen de respecter les silences et l'invisibilité fantasmée tout en révélant ce qui est tu et tabou ? Alors comment montrer, et à qui?
08.02. VIDEO SERIES
OUR SUCCESS IS IN
SHARING SPACE
EN A piece made of three videos accompanied with a text. We meet Wazina Zondon as she performs “Coming Out Muslim: Radical Acts of Love” and navigates between acceptance, silence, visibility, the stage and the intimate.
FR Trois vidéos accompagnées d’un texte. Nous rencontrons Wazina Zondon alors qu’elle prépare sa performance “Coming Out Muslim: Radical Acts of Love” et navigue entre acceptation, silence, visibilité, la scène et l’intime.
In her apartment where she had recently moved after splitting with her ex-girlfriend, she bitter sweetly said of her father:“If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?If your queer Muslim daughter is single, is she actually really gay?”
Are we to show the intimate and to whom? Even if there is a burning need to share, to ensure that whoever listens and sees, feels part of a community, are some things just meant not to be shown? My act of filming them in a way echoes that need to record and turn the ephemeral quality of their performance into an eternal act. The filmic gaze then only makes the invisible even more public.A transformation from home, to backstage, to performance, to film.
[Excerpt]
Are we to show the intimate and to whom? Even if there is a burning need to share, to ensure that whoever listens and sees, feels part of a community, are some things just meant not to be shown? My act of filming them in a way echoes that need to record and turn the ephemeral quality of their performance into an eternal act. The filmic gaze then only makes the invisible even more public.A transformation from home, to backstage, to performance, to film.
[Excerpt]
© Yasmine Benabdallah, Our Success is in sharing space, 2021.
[Stills from the video]
[Stills from the video]
A project with Wazina Zondon and Terna Hamida Tilley-Gyado / Image: Thomas Mentell and Kimberlee Venable / Sound: Kyung Min Kim and Catherine Thies / Production Assistants: Derly Perez and Madeleine Mendell
15.02. SOUND & VIDEO
SAB‘AT ’AMWAJ
EN A silent video on loop accompanied with an audio piece, in which Yasmine speaks of memory, the Atlantic, history, science fiction, and gaps in the sand.
FR Une vidéo muette en boucle, accompagnée d’une œuvre sonore, dans laquelle Yasmine parle de mémoire, de l’Atlantique, d’Histoire, de science fiction et de traces dans le sable.
“Sab‘at ’amwaj is a Moroccan ritual where you stand in the ocean and wait for seven waves to wash over you. The water takes away your troubles, offering you renewal, a part of you fading in the waves.
I have fond childhood memories of my grandmothers loving the sea. Upon telling my father about this project, he tells me that his mother did the seven waves ritual every single time she was by the ocean. He even tells me that his first time by the sea was for her to do this ritual.Waves, tides, the moon and the sun. The shifting color of the ocean, telling you of the storms to come. The feeling of water embracing me, holding me in. The feeling I get when looking at the ocean waves, knowing that tides are eternal.”
© Yasmine Benabdallah, Sab’at ’amwaj, 20121[Transcribed Excerpt from the audio]
I have fond childhood memories of my grandmothers loving the sea. Upon telling my father about this project, he tells me that his mother did the seven waves ritual every single time she was by the ocean. He even tells me that his first time by the sea was for her to do this ritual.Waves, tides, the moon and the sun. The shifting color of the ocean, telling you of the storms to come. The feeling of water embracing me, holding me in. The feeling I get when looking at the ocean waves, knowing that tides are eternal.”
© Yasmine Benabdallah, Sab’at ’amwaj, 20121
© Yasmine Benabdallah, Sab’at ’amwaj.
[Still from the video]
22.02. READER
ON SELF-REFLEXIVITY
AND OPACITY
EN A reference document on the aforementioned themes, in particular in decolonial filmmaking and image-making processes.
FR Un document de références sur les thèmes de la réflexivité et de l’opacité, en particulier dans les processus de production d’images et de films décoloniaux.
︎
TO WATCH/À REGARDER
De quelques évènements sans signification (1974), Mostafa Derkaoui
Reassemblage (1982), Trinh T. Minh-ha
Aequador (2012), Laura Huertas Millan
The Mermaids, or Aiden in Wonderland (2019), Karrabing Film Collective
︎
TO READ/À LIRE
Jay Ruby, “The image mirrored: reflexivity and the documentary film”, 1977.
Trinh T. Minh-ha, Woman, Native, Other, 1989.
Barry Barclay, Our own image: a story of a Maori filmmaker, 1990.
Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang, “Decolonization is not a metaphor”, 2012.
Janaína Oliveira, “Opacity”, introduction to the Flaherty Film Seminar, 2021.
25.02. CONVERSATION
HERE I STAND IN
FRONT OF YOUR SILENCE
EN Filmmaker Lina Soualem will join Yasmine in a discussion around memory, silence, family, the right to trauma and the right to knowledge.
FR La réalisatrice Lina Soualem se joindra à Yasmine pour une discussion autour de la mémoire, du silence, de la famille, du droit au trauma et du droit au savoir.
BIO
EN Born and raised in Morocco, Yasmine Benabdallah studied film and mathematics at Columbia University, before studying Political Arts in Paris. After directing “The Travel Curiosity” on her father’s love for travelling, Yasmine made “Ojalá: la vuelta al origen”, a documentary on the Palestinian diaspora’s dance in Chile. She is now developing an installation on finding Chile in Palestine, and “Body Here, Mind Elsewhere”, a film on a Moroccan pilgrimage between religion, sorcery, and trans identities. Her work’s been shown in France, Egypt, the US, and Palestine, in addition to residencies in Palestine, Morocco, France, and Tunisia.
FR Née et ayant grandi au Maroc, Yasmine Benabdallah a fait des études de cinéma et de mathématiques à Columbia University, avant d'étudier les arts politiques à Paris. Après “The Travel Curiosity” sur l’amour de son père pour les voyages, Yasmine a réalisé “Ojalá: la vuelta al origen”, un documentaire sur la danse de la diaspora palestinienne au Chili. Elle développe actuellement une installation sur les traces du Chili en Palestine et “Body Here, Mind Elsewhere”, un film sur un pèlerinage marocain entre religion, sorcellerie et identités trans. Son travail a été montré en France, en Égypte, aux États-Unis et en Palestine, en plus de résidences en Palestine, au Maroc, en France et en Tunisie.