A double DVD set of Syrian poet Adonis titled 'Mounchidan' أدونيس منشداً has recently been released and is also available in audio format on Amazon, iTunes, etc. This is a project that was overseen by the poet's daughter Ninar Esber and comes a few years after Esber's book titled Conversations avec Adonis mon père, [Conversations with Adonis, my Father] which was published by Editions du Seuil, Paris, in 2006.
Adonis or Adunis (Arabic: أدونيس), is a Syrian poet, essayist, and translator who was born on January 1, 1930. His real name is Ali Ahmad Said Esber (Arabic: علي أحمد سعيد إسبر; transliterated: alî ahmadi sa'îdi asbar or Ali Ahmad Sa'id). He has written more than twenty books and volumes of poetry in the Arabic language as well as translated several works from French.
Quote about Adonis by his daughter, artist Ninar Esber:
"My work as an artist has always driven me towards themes that are related to performance. For this project (which requires personal involvement on my part), I had the idea of filming Adonis as he recites his poetry. My ambition was to produce a filmed document of Adonis’s recited poetry, which would serve, by way of this privileged example, as a celebration of Arab poetry’s oral dimension.
When Adonis recites his poetry, he provides it with a bodily dimension. His voice, filled with emotions, is at the service of the language, and brings forth its musicality, as well as its warm and sensual tones. It is a tribute to the voice, to the music of the Arabic language, to a tradition that is still very much alive.
This piece disposes of one type of frame, one type of shot, and one type of lighting. The date references before each poem remind the viewer of the performative aspect of this project. Without music and without illustration, the setting is treated minimally (black background), which goes hand in hand with my preferred way of treating the image. For me, it is simply a matter of bringing the voice and the Arabic language to the forefront.
This project forms the logical conclusion to a book of interviews that I conducted with my father (Conversations avec Adonis, mon père), which was published by Editions du Seuil, Paris, in 2006.
Unlike the book, which found me on my father's own territory (language, writing, literature, the text, the book, etc.), this project consists of a genuine meeting between our respective worlds, the artistic universe and the poetic/literary universe."
--Ninar Esber 2011
Quote about Adonis by his daughter, artist Ninar Esber:
"My work as an artist has always driven me towards themes that are related to performance. For this project (which requires personal involvement on my part), I had the idea of filming Adonis as he recites his poetry. My ambition was to produce a filmed document of Adonis’s recited poetry, which would serve, by way of this privileged example, as a celebration of Arab poetry’s oral dimension.
When Adonis recites his poetry, he provides it with a bodily dimension. His voice, filled with emotions, is at the service of the language, and brings forth its musicality, as well as its warm and sensual tones. It is a tribute to the voice, to the music of the Arabic language, to a tradition that is still very much alive.
This piece disposes of one type of frame, one type of shot, and one type of lighting. The date references before each poem remind the viewer of the performative aspect of this project. Without music and without illustration, the setting is treated minimally (black background), which goes hand in hand with my preferred way of treating the image. For me, it is simply a matter of bringing the voice and the Arabic language to the forefront.
This project forms the logical conclusion to a book of interviews that I conducted with my father (Conversations avec Adonis, mon père), which was published by Editions du Seuil, Paris, in 2006.
Unlike the book, which found me on my father's own territory (language, writing, literature, the text, the book, etc.), this project consists of a genuine meeting between our respective worlds, the artistic universe and the poetic/literary universe."
--Ninar Esber 2011