‘Sabir’, from the Latin root “to know”, refers to a vernacular shared by native speakers of many different languages who come in contact. The best known of the world’s Sabirs is the dialect of middle-eastern ports, which bears elements of French, Italian, Arabic, Hebrew, Maltese, and Spanish. A sabir dialect is a result of a cultural development; it marks a new nation’s arrival. The subject of the video is Samira, the artist's grandmother, whose family used to live on Jaffa port’s edge. Samira describes pre-1948 Jaffa, and the subsequent departure of most of the city’s Arab residents to the other cities/countries, in a mixture of her mother tongue – Arabic – and her later-acquired Hebrew. While most of her childhood memories are recounted in Arabic, the war and its consequences are described in Hebrew. In the background, the sun sets serenely against the Jaffa coast. The discrepancy between Samira’s story and the postcard background, with its everyday commotion of surfers, joggers, and dog-walkers, is poignant. The sun’s height in the frame also serves as a visual marker of Samira’s story’s progress and of passing time. ‘Sabir’ was premiered at Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv.
“Sabir” comes from the Latin root “to know”, and refers to a vernacular shared by native speakers of many different languages who come in contact. The dialect’s vocabulary draws on all the regional languages, often distorting and reinventing words as they come in contact with the other tongues. The best known of the world’s Sabirs is the dialect of middle-eastern ports, which bears elements of French, Italian, Arabic, Hebrew, Maltese, and Spanish. A sabir dialect is a result of a cultural development; it marks a new nation’s arrival. Guez uses the term to introduce the first chapter of his new video piece. The subject of this chapter is Samira, whose family used to live on Jaffa port’s edge. Samira’s describes pre-1948 Jaffa, and the subsequent departure of most of the city’s Christian residents, in a mixture of her mother tongue – Arabic – and her later- acquired Hebrew. While most of her childhood memories are recounted in Arabic, the war and its consequences are described in Hebrew. In the background, the sun sets peacefully against the Jaffa beach. The discrepancy between Samira’s story and the postcard background, with its everyday commotion of surfers, joggers, and dog-walkers, is poignant. The sun’s height in the frame also serves as a visual marker of Samira’s story’s progress and of passing time.