The Guardian, 2009 (excerpt)
Running time: 3:26 minutes / HD / colour

Mbark Hedioui, the caretaker, stands in the interior of an abandoned synagogue in Amzrou, a Kasbah in Southern Morocco. His recitations of the names of the Jewish families who used to lived in the area act as markers to a community that no longer exists in its place of origin.

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

         like a figure from a Rembrandt painting
         he stands illuminated by light
         veiled by dust
         bewildered, confused, surprised

         through all of this we are closely observed
         in total confusion
         by Mbark, the guardian
         cradling, fondling, in constant motion
         to the rhythm of prayer
         his silver lock and key

         the insistent buzz of flies
         recall the verses of Hebrew prayer
         from generations past
         and I know
         I cannot capture lost time

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.

Amzrou, is a Kasbah in the Draa valley, at the tip of the Sahara Desert in southern Morocco. For over 2,500 years it was the home of a large Jewish community that lived for centuries in harmony with the local Berber tribes. Today, members of the Draouis tribe are the sole occupants of the Kasbah and occupy the homes in the mellah (Jewish quarter), where Jews used to live. The Jews were involved in crafts (jewelry, metalwork, woodwork, leather, etc.) as well as in trade. In 1958, the 18 families living in the mellah left for Israel. Today the Draouis continue the tradition of the artisans and they attribute their knowledge to the Jews who taught them their trade and left them their tools and casts.

The synagogue is located at 8 Mellah, in the heart of the old Jewish quarter. It was constructed approximately 800 years ago. It was abandoned when the Jews left. Local Draoui[s] families used it as an oven for cooking and baking, hence the ash black color stained on the walls and ground. Today, a guardian, Mbark, will open the door for visitors for a sum of money.

Pise, the traditional material used in the buildings of the area is as free as the earth. It is the ground one walks on. The earth is shovelled up and cast through a strainer and then mixed with straw and water. It is known as “the material blessed by God.” In a synagogue, small windows, and the quiet and soft intimacy of the sound inside a pise structure, brings a spiritual element. At the same time pise is in a continual state of erosion, shedding fine dust. Today, after years of abandonment, the synagogue is filled with layers of dust accumulated over generations.

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