حفنة من تراب الوطن A handful of soil from motherland, 2022

International Performance Art Giswil “Layers of Home”, Curated by Benjamin Sunarjo

16mins

Listen to the sound piece by elfrid the third here

"A handful of soil from motherland" is an Arabic quote from the book "Streetwise" by the Moroccan writer Mohamed Choukri. The performance is inspired by Choukri’s description of what he witnessed in the customs sheds, as one of the immigrants was carrying a handful of his motherland's soil in a small bag, keeping it as an Amulet. That he would probably plant seeds in it during his enforced exile. 

The performance addresses a dialogue between the current reality of the immigrants and the experience-based book on the author's life. This novel reveals the social and political structure of colonialism through the misery of Choukri’s childhood and adolescence, who followed his family in the exodus from the Rif to Tangier, where he resided until his passing in 2003. A dreadful childhood: violent father, beaten mother, assassinated brother, unschooled, lost hope, child prostitution, rape, drugs, poverty, homelessness ...

The performance represents the process of making an amulet leather, from cutting, and sewing to filling the amulet with soil brought from my homeland Morocco. The performance contemplates notions of rituals, hope and longing.

The performance took part in the International Performance Art Giswil in Switzerland, 2022.

photos by Eliane Rutishauser