MURMUR

Experimental  Quebec    2002    No dialogue    sans dialogue  0:15:00                                                    

In 1998 for the first time as an adult I travelled to the birthplace of my parents in Portugal. The images created convey the contradictions between what might be perceived as a romantic nostalgia for a time past and the harsh reality of what our family – more specifically myself within this family – endured.

The political and religious persecution that informed both the distant and recent histories of my family plays an integral role in the uncovering of the family secrets that have patterned my own personal history and shaped my identity. My ancestry is indivisible from a larger history of Secret Jewish communities of Portugal, the "Marranos", whose 'double existence' can be traced back to the expulsions of Jews during the Spanish Inquisition in the late 1400s.

Tracing a Diaspora, a tribeless tribe, longing for answers, longing to belong, to outcast alienation, I have encountered the obsession to preserve, to document, to prevent disappearance and forgetfulness. It is a means of mapping out the experience into something visible, to retrace footsteps. This work is an archaeological inquiry into the deepest reaches of my genetic memory.

BIO

Le projet, Murmur, est né en 1998 lorsque pour la première fois en tant qu'adulte, j'ai voyagé au lieu de naissance de mes parents au Portugal. Ce voyage était motivé par ma volonté de découvrir l'histoire de ma famille d'origine juive Séfarade portugaise ayant émigré en tant que réfugié au Canada dans les années soixante.