Amzrou Synagogue Interior, Series II, No. 1, 2009 (excerpt)
Running Time: 2:09 minutes / HD / colour

Dust is illuminated by light in the interior of the Amzrou Synagogue, a Kasbah in Southern Morocco.

Camera: Sylvia Safdie
Editing: Patrick Andrew Boivin, Sylvia Safdie
Audio: Silent

         black as ash
         this was an oven once they had gone
         with each foot step
         a pool of dust

         with the camera I adjust my lens
         thousands of particles appear and disappear
         to the dance of light

         textures of generations reveal themselves
         a patch of light announces the time of day
         marks of an unknown alphabet decorate the wall

Note: The subject of the Moroccan series concerns the Jewish Berbers of southern Morocco who lived there for 2500 years. The work is a poetic evocation of a place and marks the dispersion of a society from its home, its place of origin. It is the result of research, interviews and several trips that I made to southern Morocco, starting in 1981 that culminated in a series of videos, photographs and drawings.

This video was shown at the exhibition Amzrou/Morocco at Galerie J. Yahouda, Montréal in 2013.