042 | Chant de l'ombre, photos, 2018
"l’herbe pousser sur les pierres, écriture sur pierre, dans le cadre du parcours d’art contemporain de Cajarc Saint Cirq Lapopie "MEASURE THE VALLEYS", 2018
For this series, Mohssin Harraki was inspired by a character whose musical practice is also part of the activist field: Hadda Al Ghaîtia, a Moroccan poetess and singer active at the end of the 19th century, born in the valley of Oulad Zayd
- which she also evokes in some of her music. Nicknamed Kharboucha or Krida because of her frizzy hair, she was among the firsts to practice the aïta (meaning cry or lament in Arabic), which is a rural song in dialectic Arabic. She then associated to this typically Moroccan musical genre, lyrics that signaled a strong criticism of the Moroccan royal regime of the time...
Harraki borrowed the protestant register of Kharboucha’s texts to compose a poem, in Arabic, which he entitled Le Chant de l’Ombre (The Song of the Shadow). These verses are articulated around key themes of Harraki’s plastic practice, such as exile, hospitality and national and cultural belonging.
Also inspired by the geomorphology of the Lot valley, Mohssin Harraki uses a recurrent plastic strategy in his work which consists in using stone as a support for writing. First, he writes the verses of this poem on stones collected in the region, before deploying images of these stones in various villages along the valley. The artist thus proceeds to de-construct the text: the stones - and thus the verses engraved on them - are scattered in such a way as to invade the landscape of the valley.
These same photographs were removed to compose a series of eight photographs, the last print showing a retranscription of the poem in Arabic.
"L'ombre se détache", écriture sur pierre, dans le cadre du parcours d’art contemporain de Cajarc Saint Cirq Lapopie "MEASURE THE VALLEYS", 2018
"je suis mon propre invité", écriture sur pierre, dans le cadre du parcours d’art contemporain de Cajarc Saint Cirq Lapopie "MEASURE THE VALLEYS", 2018
"les oiseaux ont-ils le sentiment d’appartenir à une nation?", écriture sur pierre, dans le cadre du parcours d’art contemporain de Cajarc Saint Cirq Lapopie "MEASURE THE VALLEYS", 2018
"je suis l’image de la chose sur d’autres choses", écriture sur pierre, dans le cadre du parcours d’art contemporain de Cajarc Saint Cirq Lapopie "MEASURE THE VALLEYS", 2018
"j’ai fait du ciel mon idée et de la terre mon exil préféré", écriture sur pierre, dans le cadre du parcours d’art contemporain de Cajarc Saint Cirq Lapopie "MEASURE THE VALLEYS", 2018