BARZAKH
BARZAKH is a short experimental animation film exploring migration, sea crossings, and the liminal space between life and death. At its core is the journey of a fictional character touched by the spirit of the waters, who must forge a pact with the sacred Tree of Life to restore vitality and abundance to their village. The film weaves myth and memory into a fluid meditation on displacement, transformation, and the thresholds that shape human existence. The story has been weaved through a series of workshops of storytelling made with migrants in Tangier, Morocco.
Youssef El Idrissi | MA
Youssef El Idrissi is a multidisciplinary artist, cultural activist and researcher, based in Casablanca, Morocco. He holds a BA in Philosophy of Communications and Public Spaces, and a MA in Cultural & Artistic Engineering. In 2018, he founded several artistic initiatives such as the collective Kounaktif which aims to democratize access to arts and works at the intersection of ecology, technology and arts, and recently Dabdabat, a cultural platform raising awareness on the glocal challenges of our time through critical discourse and creative practices. Within his artistic practice, he focuses on decolonization of imaginaries, indigenous mythologies, power relations, dynamics of the unconscious, interrelation between psyche and space, body and awareness, technology and living beings, errors (glitches) and symbiosis – and water bodies as solvent of power. He aims through his cultural and artistic work to connect the aesthetical and the political by deconstructing the norms, the socio-artistic barriers and old methods using alternative pedagogies, formats and interdisciplinary practice. His mediums are a combination of node-based coding, poetry, field recording, analog and digital machines, photography and video and other tools used for video-art installations. He has been part of several programs such as the mentorship Building Beyond with Prince Claus Fund (Netherlands), curated and exhibited in amberNetworkFestival, and selected for a one-year fellowship with Diriyah Art Future (Saudi Arabia).