The performance artist Ramia Beladel, Moulay Bouchta, July 2017 (photo: Gilles Aubry).

A Wasted Breath Inside a Balloon

Sound Piece

This sound piece results from collaboration between the artists Ramia Beladel and Gilles Aubry in Moulay Bouchta l’Khmar, a village in the northern part of Morocco. Informed by Beladel’s long term research on popular Sufism, the piece documents events which took place in July 2017 during the annual celebration of the local saint in Moulay Bouchta.

Informed by Ramia Beladel’s research on Sufi healing, this sound piece relies on introspection, trance, and self-reconfiguration. One can hear songs, prayers, field recordings, and an excerpt of bokharia, a healing ritual based on the powerful sound of rifles. The piece also provides a stage for a performance by Beladel engaging with introspection, trance, and self-reconfiguration, breath by breath, balloon after balloon.

Recorded and produced by Gilles Aubry and Ramia Beladel.
Speaker: Ramia Beladel
39'03'', stereo audio

World premiere at Sonohr Radio Festival, Bern, 2019.
Moroccan premiere at Sakhra Encounters, a festival and exhibition in Moulay Bouchta, 2019.

This sound piece is part of the Norient Online Special Sawt, Bodies, Species, a joint publication with adocs, extending Gilles Aubry’s physical book Sawt, Bodies, Species: Sonic Pluralism in Morocco into a digital publication with additional video and audio materials. The Open Access publication of this book was made possible with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

Biography

Gilles Aubry is an artist, musician, and researcher based in Lausanne and Berlin. He creates installations, films, performances, and radio pieces which explore the cultural, ecological and affective dimensions of sound and listening. He has an MA in sonic arts from the Berlin University of the Arts (UDK) and recently completed a doctoral thesis on sound, aurality, and ecological voices in Morocco. His works have been presented in numerous international festivals and art institutions, including the Marrakech Biennale (2014), documenta_14 in Kassel (2017), and Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid (2020). Follow him on Instagram, and on his Website.

Biography

Ramia Beladel, born 1987 in Marrakesh, graduated from the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA) in Tetouan in 2013. She uses a variety of media (drawing, objects, photography, video) and formats (installations and performances). Her work has been presented in Morocco and internationally. Follow her on Instagram, or on her Website.

Published on May 04, 2023

Last updated on June 20, 2023

Topics

Ritual

Spirituality

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Sawt, Bodies, Species

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Being Recorded

Quotation

by Mohamed Anjjar

«We didn’t know we were being recorded, I find that outrageous! Only Paul Bowles is known today, and the musicians have been forgotten!»

This quote is taken from the video «And Who Sees the Mystery» by Gilles Aubry and Zouheir Atbane.The video is part of the Norient Online Special Sawt, Bodies, Species, a joint publication with adocs, extending Gilles Aubry’s physical book Sawt, Bodies, Species: Sonic Pluralism in Morocco into a digital publication with additional video and audio materials. The Open Access publication of this book was made possible with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

Biography

Mohamed Anjjar is a retired wood worker and ahwash musician living in Tahala.

Published on May 04, 2023

Last updated on May 31, 2023

Topic

Power

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Sawt, Bodies, Species

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STONESOUND

Video Essay

by Gilles Aubry,

Abdeljalil Saouli

This video is a documentation of a joint experiment in stone sounding in Moulay Bouchta, Morocco. The artist Abdeljalil Saouli speaks about his relationship with stones, as part of a local history of co-evolution between humans and their environment.

A rich soundscape emerges, somewhere between a lithophone instrument, a sound lab, and a living ecosystem carved by water erosion. The general notion of «sound» is re-examined through the notion of «stonesound», pointing to a relational understanding of sound and listening.

Shot and produced by Gilles Aubry and Abdeljalil Saouli in 2020.
10'23'', HD video

World premiere at Sakhra Encounters, a festival and exhibition in Moulay Bouchta, 2019.
International premiere at Simon Fraser University as part of the Festival A Light Footprint in the Cosmos, 2022.

This video is part of the Norient Online Special Sawt, Bodies, Species, a joint publication with adocs, extending Gilles Aubry’s physical book Sawt, Bodies, Species: Sonic Pluralism in Morocco into a digital publication with additional video and audio materials. The Open Access publication of this book was made possible with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

Biography

Abdeljalil Saouli, born in Fez in 1984, graduated from the National Institute of Fine Arts in Tetouan (INBA) in 2012. He became known as part of a new generation of artists in Morocco and participated in several individual and group exhibitions in the country and abroad. Follow him on Instagram.

Published on May 04, 2023

Last updated on September 18, 2023

Topics

Experiment

Nature

Sound

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Special

Sawt, Bodies, Species

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