Dusk to Dawn
Quand la terre respire
Sarah Abdel-Jelil
About the work
An invitation for soft focus, this kaleidoscopic film draws from footage the artist filmed with family on a sand dune in Tinyargue, Mauritania, the Atlantic Ocean, a Carnival parade in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and at a studio in Minneapolis, MN. This film draws from the artist’s nomadic upbringing, fractal geometry, Islamic art and design, pattern, dance, repetition, and the oscillation between personal and geological time. The artist composed this soundscape with audio of their own breath, vocalizations, and sounds of the Mediterranean Sea in Nice, France. The audio includes a few seconds of Ghadhi Mehdi, a tour guide in the Sahara in northern Mauritania, speaking about tectonic plates, volcanic eruptions, and the moment of separation of Africa from the Americas – how there was so much pressure, the earth had to breathe.
Dancers: Sarah Abdel-Jelil and Fatimetou Hademine
About the artist
Sarah Abdel-Jelil
USA/Mauritania
Sarah Abdel-Jelil is a Mauritanian-American multimedia artist based in Minneapolis, Mni Sota Makoce (Minnesota), USA. Shaped by a nomadic childhood across eight countries and a multicultural household, her practice explores the relational nature of home, movement, and the liminal spaces between human and more-than-human worlds.
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She holds an MFA from the University of Minnesota and a BA in Cinema and Media Studies from Carleton College. Her work has been developed through residencies at Caldera Arts Center (Oregon), Rosy Simas Danse (Minnesota), The Acreage Art, Design, and Ecology (Wisconsin), and Château de La Napoule (France).