Umm el-Fahm, Galilee

at the end of the day

"My place is placeless

a trace of the traceless

I belong to the Beloved

Divine Whole"

Rumi

The school's walls were covered by rotating poetry, images of bright horizons and floating words from the centre of Being. That's how remember it, if memory does not fail.

Thank you Umm el Fahem

Names of People

 Happy
Beautiful

River of Paradise

Afflatus

Hope for Love
Faith 

Perfect

Garden of Eden

Awake at Night

Umm el Fahm, Uncle Vania.

The Mask of the City is like a Hand,

Five fingers always wide spread, 

sometimes holding up the breath,

forever  stretched to the guest.

Five masks. Papier Mache', currently in display at Umm el Fahem Gallery, Israel.

The Tree

     The City 

   Mother Charcoal 

Sheik Traffic

 The Wadi Ara

Fourth Mask

The Mask of Trees

The Muezzin

big 

small

hot

cold

up 

down

under

around

on

above

with

without

near

far

inside

outside

and behind

the hill

there is a place of olive trees

and its silence keeps away

those who do not know of Glory the price.

 

We, whom are not belonging to any peoples, we can observe them with attention, find the exit and from there, see also the necessity of the World, of Time and History, like constellations in their skies, through the beautiful darkness in which they move.

Present Tense, Olives

And then, there is the Mukhtar.

And he has always been looking the same, 

watching at things, from afar.

From a distance that is Time.

From a distance that allows us to see.

   

 

   

                                          Wadi Ara, 1991. 

                                         Picture courtesy of Umm El-Fahem Art Gallery

                                      

                     Umm el-Fahem, 2014, behind the Art Gallery           

                                     

contents

                                       

                                       Ibn Kaldhon School, Umm El-Fahem

                                   Tree Masks in collaboration with Nadia Sadovski

Breathing Umm el-Fahem

After a joyful agreement with composer Eloise Gynn, I started experimenting with pupils of Ibn Khaldon School around her beautiful new composition Only Breath. This piece will be properly performed for the first time by Musarc choir next December in London, but by this time we found interesting incorporating some of the elements of this piece into my brief masquerade-workshop Breathing are the Trees, Umm el-Fahem.
Here is my crazy visual translation of  some of the sounds in Gynn's score, to be furthermore  translated to my little friends in italian gestures, english words and arabic spirit :)

Find Eloise Gynn's work in here:
www.eloisegynn.com

and for Musarc Choir:
http://www.musarc.org/choir/

The Third Mask. The song of

Mother Charcoal, Mother Charcoal

What have they brought us from the roads?

The sweetest juices

To fill your mouths.

Mother Charcoal, Mother Charcoal

Where is  the place for us to rest?

At the shadow of a parking nest.

                                                    The Mask of Sheik of Roman Traffic, Umm El-Fahm, 2014

That the Earth here was red in colour, 

I had to find myself.

She made herself a corner

and faced the city

like a visitor would do,

in front of a landscape.

Back in the studio

As in Saint Mathieu I found great enjoyment from reading Piet Mondrian's life and works, Umm El- Fahem suggested me discretely to go through the american comet of dripping.

I follow this omen.

It  is important to me seeing how one went through their lives, the shape they gave to their existence, what they have left behind, the done and the unfinished.

I guess any form is REALLY a byproduct of the technique, the process, the internal life of the maker.

Second Mask

The Mask of Mother Charcoal

The reightous Sheik Iskander, whose grave is at the center of the pick

In the 12th Century, during the reign of Saladin, this peak was used as an observation point overlooking the Mediterrenean Sea.

The "Zavia" Sufi Mosque used to stand near this observation point.

In close proximity are the graves of the princesses: El-Amirat.

It is believed that this graves were burial sites of the daughters of a mnarc dynasrty buried there during a long period of fortification.

(from The Umm el Fahem Trail Tour, Ed. U.E.F. Art Gallery)

Breathing are the Trees. Mask Making project

Today I had the first encounter with Umm el-Fahem Primary School.

Guided through a colourful, articulated system of fully equipped rooms, I meet the Art teacher, russian and jew, the English teacher, with beautiful green eyes, and the Music teacher who is also on board. 

The director, whom the children call Direc, is an amazing woman who turned a neglected place into a school  that is thriving and constantly building up new ways of learning together.

Now, where are you, young trees?

   Charcoal burning disposition. From the U.E.F Art Gallery Archive

Sketches of Tree Masks for the workshop

Miriam

El-Ereef, or "The Farmers" is where young men meet to train their horses.

Arez, directions

Ibrahim has no horses

nevertheless

his name is 'BRHM

"He who creates new directions" 

The Second Name

                         

       

                                           

                                         picture courtesy of  the U.e.F Art Gallery Archive

 "Umm el Fahem is also Known as Balad El-Maia Wa'yen, the city of the hundred and one springs. The presence of a high 

groundwater table is responsible for the many springs that used to flow in the area." 

(from the Umm el-Fahem Trail tour)

The Head

There is the Charcoal and then, there  is earth.

"Springs are a thing of the past", 

they are buried under traditions.

Where do I have to go to fill up my bottle?

The Mount Iskander was so beautiful.

This is  is not written anywhere.

Testing the ground