Screening of “Quand la terre respire” & Creative Movement Workshop

Creative Movement Workshop | North Quad | 2pm - 3pm

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. 

Drawing from her background as a dancer, facilitator, and theater practitioner as well as her nomadic upbringing, she leads intergenerational creative movement workshops as a way of grounding people in their bodies and facilitating community between participants. No "dance" experience required for the workshop.

Learn more about Sarah's workshops here.

Screening of “Quand la terre respire” | Cloisters Studio | 11am - 5pm

9min 51 sec film on loop

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

Artist's Biography

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.

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).