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‘In any creative work, be it the artist or the artisan, the creatve person unites with the material they are working with, which symbolises the world outside him/herself. The worker and the artefact become one. The human being becomes one with his creation. ‘ Erich Fromm
The word Poiein in Ancient Greek (ποιεá¿–ν) means making. It is where the word Poetry comes from. Plato had pointed at the connection between craft-making and poetry, calling us to gaze at the rich worlds of form and meaning that come to life when we take raw material from our landscape and create with it. It is possible, when we look at a handcrafted object, to appreciate the emotion and soul life that the maker had infused in it.
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Sefrou is located in the heart of the middle Atlas. Traditionally, a market town located amidst fertile farming lands, it is known for its fruit orchards, cherry festival and the large Jewish community that lived there up until the last century. Sefrou is still home to a large community of local artisans, metal smiths, woodworkers, weavers and button makers. Though the community is still thriving, few are the ones of the young generation who wish to learn these skills.
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Visiting local crafts people in their workshops, we will learn about their work and daily lives as a way to get a sense of the place through the people and their working spaces. An orientation of the city from the inside out hosted by Culture Vultures, will lead us into a deeper relationship with Amazigh women who spin and weave and we will participate in a hands own textile workshop.
We will be introduced to ‘The Loom in Local Rituals’ and how women used the loom as a sacred medium for protection. On Sunday we will make a day trip to a mountain market town in the Middle Atlas where the wool comes from, to meet women who practice unbroken textile traditions in the region.
Alongside these visits our work will consist of listening to the stories that emerge from our activities, as well as engage with traditional stories from around the world to bring into clearer focus the role of craft-making in the life of the Soul. On our last day we will share these stories in a storytelling evening (no previous experience necessary). Daily shamanic practices will help us access ancestral knowledge and seek healing for modern day’s rupture between skill and community, craft and Time.
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KARMIT EVEN-ZUR
Bird suit was made for a birdman who lived in a house on a hill near the Strait of Gibraltar and spent his days watching the passage of thousands of migrating birds through his binoculars every Spring and Autumn.
I watched him watch the birds, and in my mind I could see their extensive flight lines silently relating messages across the landmasses that we, the civilized, work so hard to separate.
I put on the bird suit and claimed it as a ceremonial garment, ritualizing the energetic trails birds make on their migration flights across the continents.
Connecting to flight lines in the sky and magnetic lines in the earth, across artificial borders, across nation states. Celebrating free movement.
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Bird suit took part in various ceremonies and events in Southern Spain and Northern Morocco since 2014 (M'zora Caravan) often making the journey back and forth across the Strait of Gibraltar, just like the migrating birds.
It was exhibited in Musee L (Louvain-la-Neuve) @BienvenUE in 2018, and worn in MAVIE, a film written by Boysenfin / realised by Sin É Angulo, depicting a poetic journey from the Sahara desert to the shores of the Strait, again and again arriving to an impenetrable sea.
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Handmade felt with merino,
jacob and gotland wool
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