Leaves Fall in All Seasons ، 20:00 min A Film by Ahmed Mater Text by Henry Hemming This film is made up of mobile phone footage shot by immigrant workers on building sites in and around Makkah between 2008 and 2013. Most of the footage was shot for the benefit of these workers’ families. The files were transferred to the artist’s phone using Bluetooth while other material was originally uploaded to YouTube. Some contributors have asked to remain anonymous. Like few cities on earth, Makkah seems to buckle under the weight of its own dramatic symbolism. It is a hallowed site revered by millions, a point of perpetual immigration, and in recent years it has begun to be recast, reworked and ultimately reconfigured. Makkah is being given a makeover. The speed and breadth of transformation introduces dependent concerns regarding the city’s social mechanics and the on-going and symbiotic relationship between demolition and construction. Above all, it has concentrated the imaginative energy of Makkah’s inhabitants on what will remain once the work is complete. SYNOPSIS : Like few cities on earth, Makkah seems to buckle under the weight of its own dramatic symbolism. It is a hallowed site revered by millions, a point of perpetual immigration, and in recent years it has begun to be recast, reworked and ultimately reconfigured. In 2010 Saudi artist Ahmed Mater began a series of deliberately experimental journeys across, around and within Makkah. He befriended immigrant workers on Al Shamia building site, some of whom agreed to provide mobile phone footage of Makkah which had been shot originally for the benefit of their families back home. This footage records what these men felt to be pivotal and spectacular moments, from a mass protest through to the heavenly ascent of a man bestriding a crescent moon. It also provides a narrated and theatrical introduction to the quotidian reality of this site of religious pilgrimage seen from the perspective of an immigrant worker. This project positions itself not in the realms of critique, activism or protest. It is a curated series of viewpoints which combine to narrate a collaborative account of multiple lives within the spiritual and geographic centre of the Islamic World.
