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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
Mythopoetic map
of the Barbate river basin
EN / ES
Pigments on linen 130x100cm / 2020
Karmit EvenZur & Manuel Maqueda
Paul Devereux, in his book Sacred Geography, speaks of two Greek terms that were in use in ancient times to denominate the land - Chora and Topos:
'Chora is the older of the two terms and was a holistic reference to place: place as expressive, place as a keeper of memory, and mythic presence. Topos, on the other hand, signified place in much the way we think of it nowadays - simple location and the objective, physical features of a locale, or topography.'
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Maps have always reflected humanity's understanding of, and relationship to their physical environment. Map-makers and geographers have always depicted their culture's current knowledge and belief system regarding the lands they were charting. Ancient maps often reflected Soul aspects of place in the forms of beasts and monsters, winds and sacred springs, gods and goddesses. Many indigenous cultures around the world still hold maps of their territories as stories and pictures in their minds. The transition to accurately drafted topographical maps reflected the transition of our awareness from a multidimensional relationship to place to a purely physical topography.
What would a map of the Barbate river watershed look like if we depicted the soul qualities of its springs, the aquifers, the hills, riverbeds and the salt marshes? If we imagined the gods and goddesses, the beasts and monsters that represent the totemic geography of the landscape?
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Art Science and Participation - an exhibition curated by Bee Time, La Chanca Barbate. Photo: Alberto Omiste
Detail
School activities using the map were developed by BeeTime as part of Critical Creative Cartographies in Barba-T exhibition. Photo: Alberto Omiste
Art Science and Participation - an exhibition curated by Bee Time, La Chanca Barbate. Photo: Alberto Omiste
'Let us imagine the Anima Mundi as that particular soul spark, that seminal image, which offers itself through each thing in its visible form. Then Anima Mundi indicates the animated possibilities presented by each event as it is, its sensuous presentation as a face bespeaking its interior image - in short its availability to imagination, its presence as a psychic reality.'
James hillman, The Thought of the Heart and the Soul of the World
This map was painted by Manuel Maqueda using Karmit's geomantic observations of the La Janda area. It was commissioned by BeeTime for the Barba-T exhibition they curated, and was used extensively in their programme Creative Critical Cartographies in schools and in citizen participation activities.
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The map is also used as part of downloadable teaching material for educational centres in the Barbate river watershed
Here are a few of the geomantic observations upon which the map was interpreted and painted:
The Holon I am looking at now is the system that encompasses La Janda, surrounded by the mountain range of the Alcornocales natural park (extending N.E to the serannia de Ronda, and to the west by the temple landscape of Trafalgar/vejer/lamuela and the area.) This system also holds within it the Bolonia holon which is connected to it and also works as an independent unit.
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We stand on the edge of the fresh water / salt marshes interaction. A place where 'Abzu' and 'Tiamat' meet. Here we have access to the primordial waters, of inner earth and cosmic intelligence.
Trafalgar is a place where the upward and downward vortex shafts connect with the two parts of the system. The downward spiral feeds an underground water stream that connects to the la Muela/ Patria ridge and the upper to the tip of vejer.
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The ‘Sea Priestesses’ working with the salt water, and the ongoing union with the land. From them we can also learn about reclaiming the wisdom of the inner serpent, healing the split that created a shadow serpent.