Film Screening
Galb’Echaouf, 2021, 18′ 48″
Monday, 28/03/2022, 7:30 pm
The screening is followed by a Q&A with Abdessamad El Montassir
in French language with German translation
Venue: Brunnenpassage, 1160 Vienna
in collaboration with SALAM ORIENT Vienna and LE CUBE Rabat.
Abdessamad El Montassir’s research-based works produce reflexive processes. In so doing, the artist works primarily with the knowledge of non-human identities, i.e. with the traumas of plants or stones, which function as witnesses to historical, non-documented events. He does this in order to generate new ways of thinking about our social environment. The geographical starting point for his research is his country of origin, Morocco, more specifically, the Sahara in southern Morocco, a territory much-disputed politically.
Abdessamad El Montassir’s most recent film project is Galb’Echaouf, 2021, 18′ 48”. Here, the artist investigates incidents that have profoundly altered the landscape of the Sahara, the desert in the southern part of Morocco. The filmmaker found himself facing a muted environment, haunted by its complex socio-political history. As an alternative, he decided to focus on the organic life that inhabits the desert, in an effort to deconstruct people’s amnesia.