Taking its title, Bled el Siba – the name given in Morocco to the lands that did not accept the Sultan’s authority and, consequently, that of the colonisers either – this experimental video sets out to establish links between the colonial past and the neoliberal, globalized present, from a gender perspective.

The piece is set in the Rif region, tracing a historical journey from the Spanish Protectorate of Northern Morocco to the present day through the oral poetic tradition of women known as irzan, which is the foundational element in the creation and reproduction of Riffian identity.

The video highlights parallels and differences between colonisation and the current mechanisms of global, patriarchal neoliberalism designed to perpetuate control over subaltern subjects. Far from portraying victimised subjects, the video emphasises the agency of women that emerges through the irony of their verses. To establish this dialogue, the project works in collaboration with local associations and women who compose new verses, facilitating a cross-dialogue with the historical and traditional irzan.