Yto Barrada
Moroccan Artist
With magic,
the craftsmanship lies in manipulating that which is made
visible to the naked eye of the viewer. “The hands of the
magician are faster than the eyes of the spectator”, explains
Abdelouahid el-Hamri in Yto Barrada’s The Magician. Filmed
in the magician’s courtyard, consisting of a makeshift stage
framed by shabby black curtains, Abdelouahid el-Hamri performs
the simplest of tricks with a seriousness which contrasts,
almost comically, with his unkempt disposition. The Smuggler
reads like an instructional video; it documents T. M., an
elderly woman, who has been trafficking fabric from the Spanish
border town of Ceuta to Tangier for 30 years. Against the
backdrop of black curtains, T. M. demonstrates how she wraps
her body with heaps of fabric, and concludes with slipping
on her long djellaba, to cover the ‘tax-free’ smuggled goods
entirely. The notion of what is made visible and what is rendered
invisible is as central to T. M.’s livelihood as to Abdelouahid
el-Hamri’s. Moroccan photographer and videographer Yto Barrada’s
compulsion to document is also one to represent that which
is unseen, rendering visible individuals and their actions
which are usually excluded from a viewer’s eye.
Part of Meeting Points 5 Contemporary Art Festival
- 2007
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