MANIPULATIONS

of FATMI Mounir

FRANCE, 2004, 00:06:50

Production : FATMI Mounir
Genre : Video art
Keyword : Allegory, Relation, Religion, Society

Summary :

Manipulations (2004) deals with visual comparison in the form of a subtle insertion, as fleeting as a shot (its appearance and duration) as it is monumental as a motif (its symbolic content). In close up, a man's hands hold a Rubik cube, and instead of becoming organized in green blue, red and yellow areas, this cube becomes totally black, all of a sudden an image of the Kaaba, around which mills the huge throng of pilgrims, slips in between shots. The hands become covered with a black substance which seems to liquefy the cube (name of the "Rubik" and French translation of "kaaba"), the hands become gloved in this opaque blackness, the substance even soils the walls, like fuel oil smothering birds on beaches, and bogging the Gulf states down in their politics.


"(...)Also engaging a toy version of the Kaaba, Fatmi’s video Manipulations, 2004 presents a pair of hands, blackened with viscous oil, manoeuvring one of the artist’s two-tone Rubik’s cubes. The relentless handling of the blackened cube becomes a symbol of the faithful Muslim’s ritual circumambulations of the Abrahamic site. Meanwhile, the video’s soundtrack pulses with a sound like a beating metal heart, accelerating as the solution approaches. As the image blurs, Fatmi flashes archival footage of pilgrims making one of seven ritual revolutions around the cuboid building at Mecca. The Rubik’s cube disappears in the last moments of the video as the coated hands continue to rub together, stained. (…)"

Lillian Davies, Excerpt from Suspect Language, Skira, 2012.

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