It is where nothing like this happens is a video that seeks to provide a visual response to a thought I have always carried within me, but long denied: the idea that I can no longer define the city of my dreams. I find myself confronted with the limits imposed by cities and their structures, even in my imagination.
The first time this reality hit me was last summer, while discussing dream destinations with my younger cousins. Every time they described a city, I found myself saying, “But that city doesn’t exist.” They would reply, “But we’re not talking about reality, we’re talking about our dreams!”
This exchange led me to reflect on all these constraints, searching through my visual memory for a convincing answer. In the end, I realized that, like Ghassan Kanafani, for me, the city of my dreams, my homeland, is where nothing like this happens.
And yet, the sky, the sea, the stars, and the moon seem to have a completely different opinion…
This 5-minute and 26-second video was created in 2022 from footage shot since 2018. As always, my analog photographs asserted their presence in the video, establishing their own rhythm. The texts written in the video were inspired by readings such as The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord, The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, phrases I’ve overheard from people passing by in the street, or lines I’ve heard from animated TV shows.
Rennes, France, 2022.
This video was exhibited during the Cairo Photo Week, 2023, as part of the Surreal City exhibition.
Aya Chriki 