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We're in the middle of installing
"Party on the CAPS".

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So this curved wall that we
picked up in three parts,

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it's going to be put together,

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painted,

5
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and then eventually installed.

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That will be, actually,
a screen.

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I have these parameters,

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which is the sound,

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the editing,
the animation.

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Everything is designed for the film.

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Then I add the space--

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how many screens,

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the scale.

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So, everything is coming together,

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and then the final touch is:

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the video finally makes it onto
the surfaces that we built for it.

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The problem is,
things that are level never look straight.

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This is the step where I get to edit my film,

19
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but using space instead of time.

20
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I go shot by shot,

21
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and for each shot,
decide what do you see where.

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I can make cuts,

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but I can also show something
in different places.

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That has an effect on
how you experience the film.

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["Meriem Bennani: In Between Languages"]

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The sculptures started happening
with the films in mind.

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So I never made a sculpture that's not
paired with a film.

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You bring into it things that are

29
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characteristics of another way of thinking.

30
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You learn something from animation

31
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that has to do with humor.

32
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And then you can make sculptures
that are funny.

33
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So I'll have the master version of the video--

34
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that is what you would watch as a film--

35
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and then the sculptures,

36
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they come from a digital world

37
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that I imagine.

38
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Then they're fabricated.

39
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So they all come from opposite places
and they meet in the middle.

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[SOUND OF SCHOOL BELL RINGING]

41
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I went to the high school I went to
in Rabat, Morocco,

42
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and I filmed a group of teenagers.

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["Mission Teens"]

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The subject of "MISSION TEENS" is
the French-speaking culture in Morocco.

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[WOMAN, IN FRENCH]
--So I've been in the French system

46
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--since...

47
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--basically since kindergarten.

48
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[BENNANI]
The biggest tool for the way

49
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that French maintain this power

50
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is education.

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[SHEEP, IN FRENCH]
--Having your kids at the Mission is...

52
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--is prestigious!

53
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[BENNANI]
The film is not about how

54
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French is not a Moroccan language,

55
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but it's more so about why French is political

56
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and also a soft power tool.

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[TEACHER, OFF-SCREEN, IN FRENCH]
--So, the definition of Third World is

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something you need to master!

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[BENNANI]
I was French educated.

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I learned about French history,

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French geography.

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The ways that I thought are

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like the way that I developed
being able to be critical--

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all these things are
complete products of French school.

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I had to emancipate myself from that

66
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to be able to talk about it.

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[WOMAN, IN FRENCH]
--The French Mission it's that we don't focus

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--so much on the country we live in.

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--Knowing that, even if it's a French school,
but it's like,

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--we're in Morocco and I would like it if

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--they focused more on Morocco and Islam and everything.

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[HOUSE, SINGING]
--I'm a fancy house in Rabat...

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[BENNANI]
Also, I filmed houses from the neighborhoods

74
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where most people who
go to French school live.

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[HOUSE, SINGING]
--Got me up a golden door.

76
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--I'm very much what everyone admires.

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[BENNANI]
From the architecture,

78
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you can see what lifestyle people aspire to.

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"MISSION TEENS,"

80
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it's first been shown here at
the Whitney Biennial,

81
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inside these sculptures on the terrace.

82
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I called them "viewing stations."

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[HOUSE, SINGING]
--Palm trees.

84
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--Marble floors.

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[BENNANI]
When you press the button,

86
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it actually steals the video
from the other side.

87
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The other person on the other side
presses the button as well.

88
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So it becomes about having to coexist.

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[LAUGHS]

90
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The themes I choose for my work,

91
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I don't make a conscious choice of being like,

92
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"I want to talk about post-colonialism."

93
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I try to...

94
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follow what I spontaneously am drawn to.

95
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In "Party on the CAPS,"

96
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I imagined a world where
teleportation is possible.

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[ALLIGATOR]
--Remember when teleportation replaced airplanes?

98
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[BENNANI]
It's kind of like thinking about
immigration in the future.

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["America's bouncer"]
--You can't come in.

100
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--You can't come in.

101
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[BENNANI]
Europe and America would freak out
about their borders

102
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if teleportation was possible.

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The Caps is an island
in the middle of the Atlantic.

104
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That is a place where American troopers--

105
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which is like a new version of I.C.E.,
kind of--

106
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has put people that have been intercepted
from Africa trying to teleport to America.

107
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And then the place has become
a place of its own.

108
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The whole island of The Caps

109
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is a physical analogy
for the idea of diaspora--

110
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how people think of diaspora as either
having to fully assimilate

111
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or return to the land they come from.

112
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But that actually there's a third alternative,

113
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which is in that in-between.

114
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--Can you have the starting point be where
the lens would be?

115
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--See, the screen should come here.

116
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Usually when something interests me,

117
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I'm not able to clarify at first
why I'm interested in it.

118
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So that effort to articulate that interest,

119
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that's the work.

120
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I haven't been able to express myself

121
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or articulate myself with words
as well as I would like to.

122
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I think that has to do with
being here for ten years

123
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and being English-as-a-second-language,

124
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and feeling like I'm losing
a bit of my first language,

125
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which is a very strange feeling.

126
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I've always been in between languages.

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I found that developing this practice
that pulls from so many different languages--

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of TV,

129
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cinema,

130
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sculpture and installation--

131
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mixing it all together has allowed me
to hit the right note,

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in my own way.