Preparation for a performance by Ramia Beladel, Moulay Bouchta, Morocco, July 2017 (photo: Gilles Aubry).

Sufi Healing, Postcolonial Bodies, and Sonic Pluralism

Book Chapter

Based on a collaboration with the visual artist Ramia Beladel in Moulay Bouchta, Morocco, this chapter of Gilles Aubry’s book Sawt, Bodies, Species provides an introduction to spiritual possession and Sufi healing practices. These effects are discussed in relation to Beladel’s own engagement with Sufi practices in her artistic work, along with gender politics. Gilles Aubry proposes new dimensions of sonic experience relative to embodiment, healing, gender, and performative art.

Popular Sufism provides examples in which sound channels the healing power of particular saints and spirits, like in trance ceremonies. These practices are often framed by socio-economic precariousness and by a critique of state policies, participating thus in collective tactics of resistance. Informed by Beladel’s long term research on popular Sufism, healing rituals, and women healers, the collaboration highlighted the centrality of the body in such practices, pointing to the complex history of postcolonial embodiment.

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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 via her website or on Instagram.

This abstract refers to the chapter «A Wasted Breath Inside a Balloon: Popular Sufi Healing, Postcolonial Bodies, and Sonic Pluralism» (pages 155–94) of the book Sawt, Bodies, Species: Sonic Pluralism in Morocco by Gilles Aubry, published by adocs in 2023. This contribution is part of the Norient Online Special Sawt, Bodies, Species, a joint publication with adocs, extending the physical book 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.

Links

Gilles Aubry & Ramia Beladel: «A Wasted Breath Inside a Balloon » (Sound Piece)

Published on May 04, 2023

Last updated on June 20, 2023

Topics

Body

Gender

Spirituality

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Sawt, Bodies, Species

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Atlantic Ragagar

Video Essay

by Gilles Aubry

Atlantic Ragagar is an experimental film on seaweed and industrial extractivism on the Moroccan Atlantic coast, inviting the spectator into a process of ecological transformation. The film is an attempt to «listen» to pollution and its effects on coastal life, inviting the spectator into a process of ecological transformation.

If pollution often remains hidden in the landscape, the effects of toxicity are rendered through the voice and bodily presence of performer Imane Zoubai. The film unfolds through her vocal interventions, first on the beach and later in the studio during improvised sessions. As she hums, sings, breathes, and silently interacts with algae, a new figure progressively emerges, maouj, an aquatic body open to transcorporeal and interspecies speculations.

Shot and produced by Gilles Aubry in 2019–21.
31'43'', HD video

World premiere and special mention at Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival (IDFF) 2022.

Imane Zoubai, born 1995 in Fez, is an artist and musician based in Tetouan. She graduated as a visual artist at the National Institute of Fine Arts in Tetouan (INBA) and received a musical education (vocals and oud guitar) at the Tetouan conservatory. Her artistic work combines these two practices, focusing on embodied and cultural aspects of sound and visuality. She uses experimental music notation formats, drawing, installation, and performance. She performed and exhibited at various art spaces, galleries, and festivals in Morocco, including Venise Cadre in Casablanca, Sakhra Festival in Moulay Bouchta, and Documenta_15 in Kassel.

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

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.

Links

Gilles Aubry: «The Binding Effect» (Video Essay)

Published on May 04, 2023

Last updated on September 18, 2023

Topics

Activism

Ecology

Nature

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Sawt, Bodies, Species

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Filmstill from «STONESOUND», Gilles Aubry and Abdeljalil Saouli, 2019 (photo: Gilles Aubry).

Stonesound and Aural Co-Domestication

Book Chapter

by Gilles Aubry

A reflection on the ways sound and listening participate in co-domestication processes between people and their environment in Moulay Bouchta, Morocco. In collaboration with the Moroccan artist Abdeljalil Saouli, Gilles Aubry initiates a series of experiments in stone sounding, which leads to a decolonial dialogue on sonic materialism and posthumanism.

Stones are ubiquitous in the landscape of Moulay Bouchta and serve as the primary building material in vernacular houses. Local building practices are themselves part of bidirectional processes of domestication, in which stones have a certain agency.

Abdeljalil Saouli recognizes a particular affect in stones, which also characterizes their sound as a distinct category of stonesound. Listening and sounding is primarily a modality of entering into a relationship with the world through his art practice and daily life. Through conscious appropriation of local sound practices and knowledge, combined with modern scientific concepts, his aesthetic practice is an expression of «sonic pluralism», as Gilles Aubry develops this concept in the introduction to his book Sawt, Bodies, Species.

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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.

This abstract refers to the chapter «Stonesound: Living With Stones, Lithic Affect, and Aural Co-Domestication» (pages 195–234) of the book «Sawt, Bodies, Species: Sonic Pluralism in Morocco» by Gilles Aubry, published by adocs in 2023. This contribution is part of the Norient Online Special Sawt, Bodies, Species, a joint publication with adocs, extending the physical book 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.

Links

Gilles Aubry: «STONESOUND» (Video Essay)

Published on May 04, 2023

Last updated on March 27, 2024

Topics

Affect

Experiment

Listening

Nature

All Topics

Special

Sawt, Bodies, Species

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