The BASEERA Project

Aziz Aissaoui: Noce

Written by Emily Sarsam. Published on 11 January 2022.

Noce is a video work by the interdisciplinary artist Aziz Aissaoui. It was filmed on his roof during the first pandemic lockdown in spring 2020. The video can be regarded as a gentle prompt to ritualize presence. To practice time bathing. To celebrate time’s abundance rather than mourn its scarcity.

Aziz Aissaoui. Noce. Stills from the video. 2021 (2)
Aziz Aissaoui. Noce. Stills from the video. 2021 (1)
Aziz Aissaoui. Noce. Stills from the video. 2021 (5)
Aziz Aissaoui. Noce. Stills from the video. 2021 (4)
Aziz Aissaoui. Noce. Stills from the video. 2021 (3)
Video Stills.

I run after time
Or what I think it is
Dwell on scars
Follow traces
I engrave to remember

The present will always flow
Just like a river
But the future is yet to come
And the past is yet to be healed
I drift down the stream

A dry wave
Blown by the wind
This familiar tissue
It taught me patience
And fluidity

I feel caressed
My perception melts
As the sun kisses me for the first time this year
I trace its movement
And the birds pull me in and out of my meditation

How to grasp time?
To visualize an idea so sly
It escapes me every time
Like traces in the sand

I think of waves
And flames
A marriage of past, present, and future
Matter is neither created nor destroyed.

In his artistic practice, Aziz Aissaoui works primarily with sculpture, installation, and video. Through these mediums, he translates and channels phenomena from the natural and built environment, and creates spaces in which people can interact with the work and its context. His background as a designer has shaped his practice by offering him the tools through which he relates to art—from its social dimensions to its methodologies.

A special thank you to the artist who showed me how to melt with time.

TASAWORAT PUBLISHING PLATFORM