Randa Maroufi. BAB SEBTA
BAB SEBTA reconstructs a series of situations observed on the border of Sebta, a Spanish enclave on Moroccan soil. This place is the setting for a traffic in goods manufactured and sold at a discount. Thousands of people work there every day.
BAB SEBTA reconstructs a series of situations observed on the border of Sebta, a Spanish enclave on Moroccan soil. This place is the setting for a traffic in goods manufactured and sold at a discount. Thousands of people work there every day. The film unfolds in a particular space-time, the border between Spain and Morocco, where stories of smuggling are legion and a place that proves to be an excellent playground for restaging individuals in motion. A choreography takes shape in a pendular spatialized duration. Three time frames, three distinct moments corresponding to the stages of the border crossing make up the journey of the camera and the thread of the film.
Beyond the simple documentary narrative close to experimental video, BAB SEBTA can be seen as an artistic experiment that questions the limits of representation and invites us to touch for a moment the strange reality of the city.
Randa Maroufi was born in 1987 in Casablanca. She lives and works in Paris. She is a graduate of the Institut National des Beaux-Arts de Tétouan, Morocco (2010), École Supérieure des Beaux- Arts d’Angers, France (2013), and Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains, Tourcoing, France (2015). Randa Maroufi was an artist member of Casa de Velázquez, the French Academy in Madrid, in 2017–18.
Randa Maroufi is interested in the staging of bodies in the public or private sphere. This often political approach emphasizes ambiguity to question the status of images and the limits of representation.
Recent exhibitions include, among others: La Biennale de Lyon, France (2022); Reina Sofía Museum, Spain (2021); New Museum, NY (2020); MA Museum, Quebec (2019); Dakar Biennale, Senegal (2018); Sharjah Biennale, Lebanon (2017); International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2016); Les Rencontres photographiques de Bamako, Mali (2015); the Marrakech Biennale, Morocco (2014).
Randa Maroufi has received several awards for her films Le Park (2015) and BAB SEBTA (2019).
BAB SEBTA (The Gate to Ceuta), film, 19 min., 2019
Languages: Spanish & Arabic; subtitles: English & French, 1.85 / 5.1 / DCP & HD files Production: Barney Production & Montfleuri Production
With the support of: La Fondation des Artistes (FR), Doha Film Institute (QAT), CNC (FR), Kamel Lazaar Foundation (TUN), AFAC (LBN), La Casa de Velázquez (FR), Le Fresnoy (FR), France 2 (FR).
Extrait de Bab Sebta © Randa Maroufi