OCCUPIED BREATHING
2019-2022
Western Sahara is the last remaining colony in Africa.
Formerly a Spanish colony, it was illegally annexed by Morocco in 1975. The brutality of the military invasion forced most of the Sahrawi population to seek shelter in refugee camps in the Algerian desert, where they still live 46 years later. A 2,500 km long military wall separates them from the remaining Sahrawis in the occupied territory, a minority subjected to systematic repression by the Moroccan authorities.
In 1991, the United Nations was mandated to organize a referendum for self-determination. However, a status quo prevails, allowing the Moroccan occupation to intensify in defiance of international law.
As nomadism is forbidden, towns enforce a policed socio-political framework which leads to forced assimilation of the Sahrawis. They view this territory as an open-air prison which is materialized by their powerlessness to enforce their rights. A combat of breathing opposes two forces on a daily basis : the settler and the colonized. The more the Moroccans occupy this space, the more stifled the Sahrawis feel.
This project revolves around photographic portraits of Sahrawi inhabitants and their written testimonies. The portraits are mostly anonymous and taken in the darkness of barricaded homes, the only spaces of free speech in towns.
The testimonies written on paper bags of cement collected on construction sites in Western Sahara echo the memoirs of survivors of enforced disappearances. Faced with the increasing numbers of disappeared Sahrawis (1976-1991) the secret jail of Kalaat M'gouna was extended and the empty bags of cement from the construction work were used by the prisoners for their clandestine writing and communication between cells.
Most of the ex-disappeared express the feeling that upon their release they migrated from a secret jail to a larger prison, the occupied Western Sahara.
To emphasize this absence of freedom and the widespread feeling of being imprisoned, the inhabitants wrote clandestinely on this same medium, with the daily risk of seeing the papers disappear into the hands of the Moroccan police.
Cement packaging also refers to the sprawling urban expansion resulting from Moroccan settlement. Two European cement companies established illegally in the territory contribute to this phenomenon. Today, urban development in the Western Sahara enables Morocco to legitimize its presence. Construction and town planning appear as a “showcase” to mask the Sahrawi oppression and violations of international law.
Formerly a Spanish colony, it was illegally annexed by Morocco in 1975. The brutality of the military invasion forced most of the Sahrawi population to seek shelter in refugee camps in the Algerian desert, where they still live 46 years later. A 2,500 km long military wall separates them from the remaining Sahrawis in the occupied territory, a minority subjected to systematic repression by the Moroccan authorities.
In 1991, the United Nations was mandated to organize a referendum for self-determination. However, a status quo prevails, allowing the Moroccan occupation to intensify in defiance of international law.
As nomadism is forbidden, towns enforce a policed socio-political framework which leads to forced assimilation of the Sahrawis. They view this territory as an open-air prison which is materialized by their powerlessness to enforce their rights. A combat of breathing opposes two forces on a daily basis : the settler and the colonized. The more the Moroccans occupy this space, the more stifled the Sahrawis feel.
This project revolves around photographic portraits of Sahrawi inhabitants and their written testimonies. The portraits are mostly anonymous and taken in the darkness of barricaded homes, the only spaces of free speech in towns.
The testimonies written on paper bags of cement collected on construction sites in Western Sahara echo the memoirs of survivors of enforced disappearances. Faced with the increasing numbers of disappeared Sahrawis (1976-1991) the secret jail of Kalaat M'gouna was extended and the empty bags of cement from the construction work were used by the prisoners for their clandestine writing and communication between cells.
Most of the ex-disappeared express the feeling that upon their release they migrated from a secret jail to a larger prison, the occupied Western Sahara.
To emphasize this absence of freedom and the widespread feeling of being imprisoned, the inhabitants wrote clandestinely on this same medium, with the daily risk of seeing the papers disappear into the hands of the Moroccan police.
Cement packaging also refers to the sprawling urban expansion resulting from Moroccan settlement. Two European cement companies established illegally in the territory contribute to this phenomenon. Today, urban development in the Western Sahara enables Morocco to legitimize its presence. Construction and town planning appear as a “showcase” to mask the Sahrawi oppression and violations of international law.
This project was elaborated under numerous constraints on the ground which determined the final visual form.
The sudden awareness of the authorities of the ongoing project resulted in numerous interventions by the Moroccan secret police in El Aaiun, the capital of Western Sahara. Two external drives were surreptitiously dismantled and replaced by empty disks. The written testimonies were replaced by blank sheets of paper. A final police operation took place in the port of Tanger with the hard disk being dismantled before leaving Morocco.
Despite these setbacks, the testimonies were recopied on the cement paper. The exterior side of the cement bags are presented beside the corresponding portraits, self-censorship for fear of reprisals. The testimonies, written in various languages are all presented aside.
A rallying cry emerges. In the face of oppression added to the colonial injunction to disappear, personal memories rise to the surface, crying out to the outside world.
Occupied breathing points to the tensions between the visible and the invisible, prior to the resumption of the armed conflict in November 2020.
The sudden awareness of the authorities of the ongoing project resulted in numerous interventions by the Moroccan secret police in El Aaiun, the capital of Western Sahara. Two external drives were surreptitiously dismantled and replaced by empty disks. The written testimonies were replaced by blank sheets of paper. A final police operation took place in the port of Tanger with the hard disk being dismantled before leaving Morocco.
Despite these setbacks, the testimonies were recopied on the cement paper. The exterior side of the cement bags are presented beside the corresponding portraits, self-censorship for fear of reprisals. The testimonies, written in various languages are all presented aside.
A rallying cry emerges. In the face of oppression added to the colonial injunction to disappear, personal memories rise to the surface, crying out to the outside world.
Occupied breathing points to the tensions between the visible and the invisible, prior to the resumption of the armed conflict in November 2020.
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According to Abu Sa'id Al Khudri, the Prophet said :
« Anyone among you who witnesses a wrongdoing must change it with the pen ; if he is unable, let him do so by speech ; and if he is unable, let him do it in his heart ; it is the minimum degree of Faith ».
In Western Sahara, the level of oppression and fear can be measured by the surrounding silence. These stones belong to women who did not write testimonies, by fear of reprisals. Their stones testify for them. Tayammums are stones used for dry ablutions. Collected in the desert, the stone has a sentimental value for the one who selected it among so many others. Nomadism being forbidden, it is an object which refers to memories and territorial attachment.
After years of prayers, it becomes smooth, polished by hopes and confidences. It listens and absorbs. Beyond its religious character, it can be seen as a therapeutic refuge in an oppressive territory where speech is compartmentalized, censored, and self-censored. As freedom of expression does not exist, you cannot share your story, nor receive help from psychologists. Everyone manages his best to cope with traumas, fears, and frustrations.