A quest for Al Khadir الخضر, the inner master. Al Khadir, a character generally unknown in Western culture, occupies a very important place in the popular and mystical knowledge of the countries of the Islamic rhizome, although its origins go back to ancient times. Al Khadir, literally the one who greens, inhabits the in-between world, the no-man's land, the fine interstice between the real and the unreal, life and death, sleep and wakefulness,.... this place is called Al Barzaj, the Isthmus. Where he passes, everything greens up, even the tracks of his footsteps are immediately covered with grass.
Toni Serra
18 Archival description results for Toni Serra
"In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors..." [William Blake] An old pilgrim dressed in rags observes a flower in the dark of the night ... The old man is a door between the things that are known and unknown ... symbolizes the decline and the end of what we have taken for real, and now it is perceived as ephemeral and inconsistent, as the poverty of his clothes dragged by time. The proximity of death as an unavoidable truth gives his own vision; a new and deeper insight not limited to visual perception, and beyond logic and laws of the world. Maybe that's why in the dark of night can contemplate the beauty of a flower.
From the series Fez Ciudad Interior. Silences and wind in the olive trees, contemplation, labyrinths and dreams. Abdelfettah Seffar, a craftsman who lived in London for years and decided to return, talks about Fez, a veiled city, and reflects of the West and its conflicts.
Untitled1998, Tangier. Conversations in the bar La Poste with Tangerian writer Mohammed Chukri and New York poet Ira Cohen, stories of death, separation and loss under the mantle of friendship.
The search for water, the descent deep into the well of the heart. Based on a 17th Century Persian poem by Najmudin Kubra. The most probable is that sooner or later we will meet in an apparently dry and arid wilderness. Unexpectedly our footsteps have left us there, all roads are possible, but none of them seem to lead anywhere. In our loneliness we find that contemplation is our only company, the quiet gaze shows us a quiet world, a world that slowly begins to show itself outside of the parameters of desire or functionality to be a world with no outside or inside. Now we understand better, that that which we see is no stranger to us and this journey takes on a diverse and interpretative sense. A small group of men appears in the distance, we go closer and follow them. One of them is a water diviner, he looks for water with an olive branch, his steps are quick, suddenly, as if receiving a blow he falters, and perhaps will fall, we fall... On a dry bush in the wilderness a few small flowers have bloomed, our steps now pass over a path of dust, stones, brambles and acacia, crossing gates, and whispers, murmurs, or laughter of children... Lying on the dirt, like the dirt, so that a well can open in our chest and consciousness can descend close to the heart, there we will see without words, with the sounds of heartbeat breathing, a reminder of the place we come from, of where we belong, from where appearance springs, like those clouds that form whimsical figures that linger only a moment... A search for what there is of life in us. The presence of that which makes us live. Video Serie: El Hamdulillah Tapes.
Anonymous guide. Fes el Bali, the old medina of Fez founded in 809 by Idris II, is still completely contained within city walls. The gates (Bab Bou Jeloud, Bab Fteuh, Bab Er Rsif, Bab Guissa...) therefore retain all their social and symbolic value, associated with the different activities of the city and its inhabitants.
A conversation with a woman who washes and massages the women who go to the hammam (public baths), helps bring the neighbourhood children into the world, and to wash the dead.
Dream stories. Dreams as a passage into parallel worlds, erasing the limits between the real and the unreal, between life and death.
A journey of initiation into a city and a its culture. The set of projections (10 screens) aimed to create a journey in the complex sense of the term: using audiovisual segments to illustrate aspects of the anthropological, sociological, urban and religious tissues of the city. A journey claiming both: a certain objectivity (in the working method), and the subjectivity (of the travel experience and approach to another culture). Moreover, the projections do not meet the criteria of a film with a beginning and an end, but rather the creation of a landscape, so the viewer choosed the time he/she wished to dedicated to each fragment. This made it possible to enjoy a deeper level of inquiry to specific fragments (artisans, rituals interviews, etc.). Consequently, the result of each visit to the exhibition gave an unique combinatorial fragments, since the total length of the projections would be about 6 hours. VideoInstallation 10 screens total lenght: 6h 40' Toni Serra , Albert García Espuche CCCB Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona 2002
UntitledAn initiatic journey Videos from an exhibition at the Centre de Cultura Comtemporània de Barcelona from March 26 to May 30, 2002 (a project by Albert Garcia-Espuche and Toni Serra). Into the innermost parts of the city of Fes.Using audiovisual recordings that illustrate some of the different anthropologic, sociologic, urbanistic and religious aspects that make up the fabric of the city. A journey that requires both objectivity (in the working method) and subjectivity (for the experience of the journey and immersion in another culture).