It is still Nightfall
Prison Qara Meknès
April 14 - May 14, 2015
The public intervention project entitled It’s Still Nigthfall is held in the legendary Qara prison in Meknès, Morocco, a large underground and labyrinthine jail built in the 18th century at the request of sultan Moulay Ismail. The installation comprises 80 wooden disks painted in white and covered in calligraphed black inscriptions taken from quatrains by the Sufi poet Sidi Abderrahman el Majdoub, who is very popular in Morocco and across North Africa and whose poems are the source of many commonly used proverbs. The disks are placed under the halos of light falling from the prison’s oculi that provided light and ventilation for the prisoners and slaves who populated it.
It’s Still Nightfall questions the relation of the contemporary viewer to the world by using the notion of the mystical quest found in the Sufi doctrine (in the sense of both a quest for the divine and an exploration of one’s inner self) based on the connection of elements of cultural heritage belonging to different historic periods, and also by creating a dialogue between poetry and architecture. The photographic project and the installation are like two facets of a single artistic process. The installation is its nocturnal version: it features the inside of the building in the dark and almost entirely cut off from the outside world – an extended night, without any alternation or end, from which all markers of time have disappeared.
Within the setting of the Qara prison, the installation elaborates an esthetic of imprisonment and isolation that is reminiscent of the description of the initial situation of the subject on a quest to find oneself as presented in the Sufi doctrine. Isolated from oneself and one’s desires, the quest for inner self is an individual’s attempt to rejoin himself and apprehend the world in all its reality, outside of the usual categories of thought that prevent this process. This quest is an underground adventure, in the depths of the spirit and of what exists. It is a labyrinthine quest, as accessing full consciousness is a difficult journey rife with obstacles. At the same time, the question of the access to knowledge is directly connected to that of accessing freedom. The chiaroscuro effects obtained from the light falling from the oculi, the dim lighting of the space, the fact that the conditions in which the work can be seen are entirely dependent on the course of the sun and the poor ventilation creating a fear of suffocation all add to the mystery and dramatize the question of the access to knowledge. The rigorous repetition of the circular motifs and their regular appearance on the path followed by the viewers is evocative of the asceticism the mystic must abide by in order to reach the unity he seeks.
Thus, this is an ascetic journey, but also a subversive one: the spaces are diverted from their primary function as a jail. The presence in this place, historically dedicated to the censorship and imprisonment of dissenters, of the inflammatory quatrains by the revolutionary poet constitute a blatant form of licentiousness. It is the manifestation of a desire that can be found in every quest for self and for freedom, a desire that is fueled by obstacles while freeing itself from them with levity. Today, the prison corridors are used as a clandestine meeting place for lovers who etch their passionate declarations of love in the walls. The installation creates a dialogue between architecture and poetry, between an irremovable and almost eternal place of memory and ephemeral and poetic words filled with desire. It can be seen as a form of historic revenge: that of the poet, of lovers and of desire over history, politics, architecture and their capacity to imprison, censor and impede. This work encourages moving around and going out to encounter the world, other people and oneself through the combination of various sources of inspiration bringing together philosophy and poetry, intellectual rigor and sensitivity.
Studio Fatmi, April 2017
