Video

Sahara Chronicle

Ursula Biemann

2007, 81:34 minutes, colour

TAPECODE 656.06

Sahara Chronicle emcompasses an undefined number of short videos documenting the present sub-Saharan exodus towards Europe. Taking a close look at the modalities and logistics of the migration system in the Sahara, the project examines the politics of mobility, visibility and containment which lie at the heart of current global geopolitics. The material is gathered during three fieldtrips to major gates and nodes of the trans-Saharan network in Morocco, Mauritania and Niger where migratory intesity is bundled. No voice-over narrative strings these stories together. Meaning has to be extracted from the interstices between the documents, from the stretch of the journey that is most invisible to the eye.

01_DESERT TRUCK TERMINAL 13:00
02_DESERT RADIO DRONE 5:40
03_INTERVIEW ADAWA 10:20
04_URANIUM MINE 3:46
05_TUAREG BORDER GUIDES 3:47
06_IRON ORE TRAIN 2:56
07_FISHERY IN EEZ 7:20
08_OCTOPUS PROCESSING PLANT 3:35
09_RED CRESCENT CAMP INSPECTION 7:25
10_OUJDA FRONTIERLAND 7:10
11_ARCHITECTURES OF MOBILITY 3:35
12_DEPORTATION PRISON LAAYOUNE 5:46

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Critical Writing

Liquid Assets
by Sukhdev Sandhu. Sight and Sound, May 2013.
Video's Migrant Geography: Ursula Biemann's Sahara Chronicle
by T.J. Demos. The Migrant Image: The Art and Politics of Documentary during Global Crisis, 2013. London: Duke University Press, 2013.