Constructing a decolonial archive of intertwined material and literary cultures, M’barek Bouhchichi focuses on embodied histories and liberatory poetics of Blackness in his homeland, Morocco, and other regions of North Africa. Our voices are wounded (2024) assembles 40 vessels recalling ancient pottery used for carrying and storing water. Representing different civilisations and eras, these ceramic works are engraved with poetic fragments in minoritised languages, pressing against colonial monolingualism and the violence of empires. The seven works from ‘"La poésie ne doit pas périr. Car alors, où serait l’espoir du Monde" Léopold Sédar Senghor’ [‘Poetry must not perish. For then, what would be the hope of the world?’ Léopold Sédar Senghor] (2023) are inspired by the writing of the Senegalese poet, thinker and political leader quoted in the title. Bouhchichi transforms the tribulum, an ancient agricultural implement for threshing grains, into a slate for the inscription of revolutionary Tunisian poetry in Braille, invoking the persistence of haptic memory and the power of opacity against the blindness of imperial history.
Director - Magdi Emad
Camera Operators - Ward Helal, Shefeek Sha Nk & Ali Alfadly
Editor - Magdi Emad
Sound Design - Unnikrishnan
Production Manager - Dima B
Assistant Director - unnikrishnan
