Tribe 09

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NEW MEDIA Images - Courtesy of artist. Writer - Emma Warburton, arts writer and researcher.

Meriem Bennani: Engineering Environments Discussions on immersive video installations Emma Rae Warburton: How do you describe

for different production companies, I started

yourself as an artist?

experimenting with videos I would casually take

Meriem Bennani: I make video installations, but I

on my phone, or videos from the internet on current

don’t usually define myself. In the past couple of

events or famous music videos. As I played these

years, I’ve focused on a practice that starts with a

videos, I would manipulate them. I then realised that

documentary—like interest in a subject or person.

they had power. Video is very powerful, and when

And then I film the subject or people in question.

you modify a famous video, the viewer questions

Which then turns into a video of around 30 minutes.

what it is, which isn’t real anymore. I then realised the

That’s been kind of a consistent pattern. But the

potential of storytelling with video, and decided to

video is not documentary; the second I start editing

explore that. Before that I mostly worked in drawing

it, it becomes something else. And then it’s usually

and animation.

presented in a multi-channel and multi-screen installation.

EW: Humour and comedy are integral to your practice. Can you talk about the importance of

Video is very powerful, and when you modify a famous video, or when you modify a video and the viewer questions what is and isn’t real anymore, it has a lot of potential

EW: If the starting point is a subject or a person,

humour in your videos?

what are you trying to arrive at? It there a common

MB: The humour is mostly intentional, but sometimes

goal for your videos?

it’s not. It’s just how I naturally approach subjects.

MB: I’ve been living in New York for ten years. I do

MB: I’m really not goal oriented. I start intuitively,

I think we all have a default mode of expression. If

travel a lot and spend a lot of time in Morocco. It’s

being attracted to someone or something that I

a subject interests me, I naturally approach it with

a luxury, but if you can have access to two centres

come in contact with. Then I spontaneously film

humour It’s also a way of warming up to more serious

instead of one, I think that’s very helpful. Wherever

that person or thing. Through editing, I then come

subjects in my work. The way the audience interacts

you stay for a long time ends up feeling like a centre

closer to understanding what it is about the person

with humour mirrors my own interests in humour.

which I think is very dangerous. When I spend too

or thing that interests me. Usually, my work arrives

This makes the work more accessible to people, as

much time in New York, it is harder to get out of the

at questions rather than conclusions and is about

well as for me. I am very serious about the subjects

bubble of being there, which is why I love going

universal concepts.

that I approach. Although there is humour, I’m not

back and forth.

interested in being sarcastic or ironic. I try to have EW: What is the role of photography in your work?

a very full-hearted approach to things. I don’t use

I think my work is very much about of someone that

MB: I take photos every day. I take a lot of photos.

humour to create distance. I use it to be playful. My

belongs to a diaspora - someone who misses where

But only with my phone. So, I don’t really think about

work is pretty optimistic and positive, which also is

they’re from. But I also grew up in Morocco. I wasn’t

the medium.

not planned.

born away. So my work moves between this feeling

EW: Where did your interest in video as a medium

EW: Where do you predominantly live right now?

made from the inside, from within Morocco. I am

begin?

Does your location affect your creativity including

very interested in the idea of having two gazes at

MB: When learning how to do special effects

your resulting work?

once as well as the space in between them.

of being away from where I’m from, but also as being

138 tribe


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