1 00:00:01,020 --> 00:00:02,940 [COMPUTER MOUSE CLICKING] 2 00:00:08,080 --> 00:00:10,280 ["New York Close Up"] 3 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:19,400 [SNEEZES] 4 00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:21,620 I feel like I have a hard time connecting to 5 00:00:21,620 --> 00:00:24,160 anything that doesn’t have humor 6 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:26,340 because for me, humor is like survival. 7 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:31,300 I can't imagine a state of no humor. 8 00:00:35,580 --> 00:00:38,640 [Meriem Bennani's Exploded Visions] 9 00:00:43,780 --> 00:00:45,579 I grew up in Rabat, Morocco 10 00:00:45,579 --> 00:00:48,460 and I've lived in New York for nine years. 11 00:00:48,460 --> 00:00:53,390 I had my first museum exhibition at PS1 last summer. 12 00:00:53,390 --> 00:00:56,530 I couldn’t believe it, and I tried to stay cool. 13 00:00:56,530 --> 00:00:58,140 But I was so excited. 14 00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:04,360 I had about a month and a half to prepare. 15 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:08,050 I had tickets to go to Morocco the next week. 16 00:01:08,050 --> 00:01:11,689 And I just decided I would observe and film everything 17 00:01:11,689 --> 00:01:15,040 and kind of have this almost diaristic archive 18 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:17,020 of my two weeks there. 19 00:01:18,490 --> 00:01:20,000 I wanted to take on this challenge 20 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:22,630 of using it in a way that I had never seen. 21 00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:25,060 [MUSIC BEGINS PLAYING] 22 00:01:32,020 --> 00:01:34,760 [FLY SINGS RIHANNA'S "KISS IT BETTER"] ♪ Kiss it, kiss it better, baby ♪ 23 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:37,600 I made a 3-D fly in the video. 24 00:01:38,440 --> 00:01:40,840 And so she's taking you on this tour. 25 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:43,360 She's kind of like the storyteller. 26 00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:49,260 One characteristic of the fly is 27 00:01:49,260 --> 00:01:52,240 that compound vision just formally felt like 28 00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:56,899 a direct analogy with the room that had, like, twelve channels 29 00:01:56,900 --> 00:01:59,640 and all these different points of views of video. 30 00:02:01,580 --> 00:02:03,060 Video for me is new. 31 00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:06,340 What I've always done is drawing. 32 00:02:08,060 --> 00:02:10,080 I like that, with a video, 33 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:12,040 within one second, you know where you are. 34 00:02:18,340 --> 00:02:20,920 I use footage as material, 35 00:02:20,920 --> 00:02:22,819 and not for its real content, 36 00:02:22,819 --> 00:02:24,340 but really using it as material 37 00:02:24,340 --> 00:02:28,310 in the direction that is completely disconnected with its reality. 38 00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:31,880 So I started making these little videos 39 00:02:31,890 --> 00:02:35,390 where I would see something and then imagine what could be added 40 00:02:35,390 --> 00:02:37,100 or removed or manipulated. 41 00:02:37,860 --> 00:02:39,700 It would be really quick, like a fifteen-second video-- 42 00:02:39,700 --> 00:02:42,970 which was the time on Instagram before it became a minute-- 43 00:02:42,970 --> 00:02:45,560 and there was a freedom that was really fun in that. 44 00:02:45,860 --> 00:02:47,080 [MUSIC BEGINS PLAYING] 45 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:00,820 This past spring, I was commissioned by Art Dubai 46 00:03:00,820 --> 00:03:02,930 to make an installation. 47 00:03:02,930 --> 00:03:05,060 And so I made these four sculptures 48 00:03:05,060 --> 00:03:07,480 that were actually viewing stations. 49 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:11,980 They reference design in a way that makes you want to sit in them-- 50 00:03:11,990 --> 00:03:13,520 like, they feel comfortable, 51 00:03:13,520 --> 00:03:16,420 but then you kind of are tricked because when you sit in them 52 00:03:16,420 --> 00:03:20,340 your head ends up inside with a video that you are viewing. 53 00:03:29,260 --> 00:03:30,020 [WOMAN] Action 54 00:03:34,340 --> 00:03:36,860 --There is this Egyptian couple and the guy says: 55 00:03:37,140 --> 00:03:39,220 --"Have you seen the stars habibti?" 56 00:03:39,220 --> 00:03:41,260 --And the girl: "Oh habibi I have seen them indeed!" 57 00:03:41,260 --> 00:03:42,400 [Isn't the Residence beautiful?] 58 00:03:45,220 --> 00:03:46,240 [Me?] 59 00:03:46,620 --> 00:03:48,260 [BENNANI] When I go to Morocco, 60 00:03:48,260 --> 00:03:52,580 I am surrounded by these women that are powerful or very charismatic. 61 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:58,800 I filmed four women that are family members. 62 00:03:59,460 --> 00:04:02,160 But, at the same time, they're always in between 63 00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:05,120 being a family member and becoming a character. 64 00:04:05,860 --> 00:04:08,700 [WOMAN SPEAKING IN FRENCH] --I work as a medical representative. 65 00:04:09,820 --> 00:04:12,140 --I am divorced, no kids. 66 00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:14,500 [BENNANI] There's these two extremes, you know. 67 00:04:14,580 --> 00:04:17,970 On one side, I almost feel emotionally like a monster 68 00:04:17,970 --> 00:04:21,720 who traps family members into this digital world. 69 00:04:23,400 --> 00:04:25,000 And then the other extreme is like 70 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:25,640 [CAMERA CLICKS] 71 00:04:25,640 --> 00:04:28,500 fully loving and celebrating family. 72 00:04:29,130 --> 00:04:30,960 I feel like they're both necessary 73 00:04:30,970 --> 00:04:33,710 and between the friction of both of them 74 00:04:33,710 --> 00:04:36,500 is created all this potential for storytelling. 75 00:04:42,430 --> 00:04:44,940 If you think that the time spent on a piece 76 00:04:44,940 --> 00:04:48,090 is a hundred hours, 77 00:04:48,090 --> 00:04:52,120 I spent maybe one hour with them 78 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:54,560 and ninety-nine hours editing-- 79 00:04:54,560 --> 00:04:56,940 looking at their face and tracking it frame by frame. 80 00:05:00,460 --> 00:05:03,340 They have no idea that I'm spending so much time with them 81 00:05:03,340 --> 00:05:04,440 while I'm in New York. 82 00:05:05,500 --> 00:05:06,360 I like that. 83 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:15,530 I was invited by Public Art Fund, 84 00:05:15,530 --> 00:05:20,340 and I made a video piece for the Barclays Center oculus screen. 85 00:05:21,520 --> 00:05:24,060 The media portrays very extreme, 86 00:05:24,060 --> 00:05:26,760 one-dimensional portraits of Muslims. 87 00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:31,040 Because I knew this video would exist in a public space, 88 00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:35,220 I felt the necessity to be more thoughtful 89 00:05:35,220 --> 00:05:38,120 and reflect on women who wear the hijab. 90 00:05:39,860 --> 00:05:41,900 The video was called "Your Year" 91 00:05:41,900 --> 00:05:46,740 and it was showing a timeline of secular and Muslim holidays in America. 92 00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:51,620 I wanted it to be not jokey, 93 00:05:51,620 --> 00:05:54,710 but to be obviously in support of 94 00:05:54,710 --> 00:05:58,700 women wearing the hijab in the neighborhood where they would see the video. 95 00:06:01,520 --> 00:06:02,800 I had a different approach, 96 00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:05,970 which was to actually do way more research, 97 00:06:05,970 --> 00:06:07,480 to talk to women who wear the hijab-- 98 00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:09,500 who think about it, who write about it-- 99 00:06:09,500 --> 00:06:11,060 in today's America. 100 00:06:13,800 --> 00:06:15,280 Being in New York-- 101 00:06:15,280 --> 00:06:18,080 with Trump, after this election-- 102 00:06:18,540 --> 00:06:20,960 is actually affecting me in deep ways. 103 00:06:22,440 --> 00:06:25,480 Growing up in Morocco, I never really thought of myself, 104 00:06:25,490 --> 00:06:26,990 for example, as an Arab. 105 00:06:26,990 --> 00:06:28,200 Although I am, you know? 106 00:06:29,080 --> 00:06:30,760 I never thought in those terms. 107 00:06:31,180 --> 00:06:32,640 And being here, 108 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:37,760 with the travel ban uniting seven countries into this shitty situation, 109 00:06:38,380 --> 00:06:40,280 for the first time I have felt it. 110 00:06:40,800 --> 00:06:44,520 I don’t want to be a Moroccan or a Muslim woman artist. 111 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:46,740 I just want to be an artist 112 00:06:46,740 --> 00:06:49,360 who is making a project about trees. 113 00:06:49,920 --> 00:06:51,160 --Can I touch her? 114 00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:52,160 --She's friendly? 115 00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:53,260 --She doesn't bite? 116 00:06:53,260 --> 00:06:55,520 What this political climate does 117 00:06:55,520 --> 00:06:59,180 is that it asks you to think about your identity constantly. 118 00:07:00,620 --> 00:07:03,000 And I feel like my reaction to that 119 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:04,940 has been to make work that 120 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:09,440 itself doesn’t stick to a genre or one identity. 121 00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:12,400 It has to do with me not wanting to 122 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:14,700 define myself into one thing.