Ymane Fakhir’s practice focuses on photography and video. Her work looks at what constitutes identities: perpetuating or breaking with traditions, the timelessness of crafts, care as a gesture that supports life and heritage. Her work thus underlines the dichotomy between private and public spaces that is inevitably dictated by social norms.  

In recent years, Ymane Fakhir has also worked on short films and larger installations, such as The Lion’s Share (2017), which examines the issue of equal access to inheritance between women and men in Morocco. 

Ymane Fakhir, The Leopard’s Abyss, 2020
Performance
Performer: Séphora Pondi
Direction: Ymane Fakhir et Alexandre Bergamini
Sound design: Jean-Baptiste Imbert
Comissioned by Manifesta 13 Marseille
Supported by Ammodo, Drosos Foundation and Radio Grenouille
Courtesy of the artist

Ymane Fakhir’s project is a performance that tells the tale of Le gouffre du leopard (The Leopard’s Abyss). Bina is an island dweller. She tells us about the journey of her parents Doress and Ahras, who left their mountain for a new land of welcome: ‘the island’. Her parents, Ahras and Doress, cross paths with various young people desperately trying to find their way: Ahras who is slowly weakening; courageous Doress who never has regrets; other young people sinking into a deadly routine and those like Ayour who suddenly disappear, not to mention the ghosts of the mountain. Bina tells us about these adventures and refuses any sense of pity. She sees them as a victory over silence, nothingness and the injustices suffered by Doress and her family. This title of the performance was inspired by the coloured clay stains deposited by water on walls which have patterns similar to the furs of the leopards and the hyenas of Djurdjura. Whenever problems happened there, rescue was almost impossible given the hostile environment, hence the hopelessness of the ‘abyss’.

The performance is the result of a collaboration with Radio Grenouille and will take place on the 9th of October at 21.00 and on the 10th of October at 18.00.

* Work conceived for the occasion of Manifesta 13 Marseille

Watch the Interview of artist Ymane Fakhir HERE

http://www.documentsdartistes.org/fakhir