Y a Rien Ici ! (There's Nothing Here!)
In January 2018, RC made a first stay in the province of Guelmin, southern Morocco, the beginning of the Sahara desert... He crossed the oases of Tighmert, El Borj, Taidalt, Fask... undecided places with discreet charms, out of time, where one immediately feels good, conducive to resourcing, to daydreaming, to the pleasure of meeting people and to exchanging around values often forgotten in our society. Seduced, he will return in 2020.
"There's nothing here" (“ Y a Rien Ici, ! ») is the lucid observation made by a young local guide. Underneath this reflection, one can half-simply perceive a fragility that leads to the universal dilemma of "Here or elsewhere? To stay or to leave? “.
To assert one's identity in this No Man's Land is either a marked acceptance of wisdom or a feeling of isolation that is difficult to bear, with in this state of mind, the intoxication of exile, a hazardous rebellion towards an uncertain future. "Come, come, come, let us leave...Let us leave the town".
RC takes us into a pure narrative that asserts itself in its simplest expression, the interiority.
We follow, with him, the sedentary course of things. We grope our eyes through wide shots, landscapes frozen in silence, where the eye focuses, here and there, on a few details, abandoned objects that we look at with sympathy like involuntary works of art, or relics shaped by time...
This "Y a Rien Ici !" pursues him, titillates him. With mischievous defiance, he looks down on this disturbance of the eye and honours the visible part of things, the beauty of the scenes that he restores to us in their juices, but also the less perceptible one, the dignity and benevolence in the air between beings... that Essential Whole in his eyes...
It is nuanced,
Here, the traveller, free of all fetters, rubs shoulders with the unsuspected lightness of being.
Life is limited to modest rituals whose nuances can be savoured...
...everything is harmonised according to the rules dictated by time and chance, the wonderful fruit of an ignored destiny.
Here, you get used to it but not like in the city. After a certain degree of perseverance, life sometimes wakes up...
...the anxieties fade, the scars fade.
Here, all ways of seeing and feeling the world are good, especially if you make good use of them and talk about them
Nothing that helps us to live is neglected, there is no fuss.
Sharing, humility and simplicity are the key words.
Here, leaning against a tree, we breathe, we soak up... we take root...
Here, portable radios broadcast melodies from elsewhere that suddenly find a very special echo...
...music moves borders.
He's a real nowhere man…Sitting in his nowhere land… Making all his nowhere plans for nobody
Doesn't have a point of view… Knows not where he's going to… Isn't he a bit like you and me?
Nowhere man please listen… You don't know what you're missing… Nowhere man, the world is at your command
He's as blind as he can be… Just sees what he wants to see… Nowhere man, can you see me at all
Nowhere man don't worry… Take your time, don't hurry
Leave it all 'til somebody else… Lends you a hand
Ah, la, la, la, la… Doesn't have a point of view
Knows not where he's going to… Isn't he a bit like you and me?
Nowhere man please listen… You don't know what you're missing…
Nowhere man, The world is at your command… Ah, la, la, la, la
He's a real nowhere man… Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody.
Here, the practical spirit is "made to measure", nothing is lost...
Nothing occupies this versatile life, we touch EVERYTHING...and that's an understatement!
As if, here, everything was there...in the interstices, in the dotted line......
As if, behind the destitution, beyond this zero point of existence, there was still something left...
As if the gap between the other and oneself, between the emptiness of existence and its fullness, between solitude and presence, had melted to reach a harmonious balance... a happy medium!
Welcome to the boondocks!
Travelling, yes... Travelling, yes...Dreaming, yes...it's good...provided we come back...!
Text by Nicolas Suk