Dust, 2009 (excerpt)
Running time: 4:50 minutes / HD / colour

Dust, light, and a wall are the elements in this video. The location is an abandoned synagogue in Amzrou, 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 2,500 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.