Absent
presence
Tehseen feels divine presence
“I am Tehseen Nisar. I originally come from Karachi, Pakistan and recently I spent three years living in Palermo, Sicily.”
“Palermo has touched me deeply. People say it’s a dirty city, it’s chaotic, but I found it resonated spiritually in my heart.
All I have to do is to close my eyes and I’m with the sounds, the people, the tastes of the fruits, the nature of Sicily.
This city doesn’t treat me as an outsider. I feel enmeshed.”
“Palermo is a port city, and Sicily is a crossroads of civilisations.
It is a continuation of the human journey of discovery and rediscovery. But there’s also a dark spot to this history. Humans are welcomed by the sea, the land, but not by other humans.”
“I feel that the sky has a special significance, the light in the sky... in this city the colours are so divine. We are at the tip of Europe, and at the beginning of Africa.“
“The other day, I walked to the rear side of the Cathedral of Palermo and the architecture is so moving.”
“You can almost see the central entrance of the mosque that was once there.
I have returned since and imagined what it would’ve been like hundreds of years ago.
Santa Rosalia is not only patron of the city but also patron of humanity.”
“When I visited her tomb, I saw that she is revered equally by Catholics and Hindus… they are all paying tribute to her.”
“Sometimes the energy of a place is so overwhelming.
We were discussing Ziza Palace. You feel the sense of glory, the ambience that once prevailed touches your heart.”
“Whenever I enter this zone of nature, like Villa Trabia, I feel its vibrations. It’s like a kingdom.
The banyan tree is so close to my soul. Every time I look at its branches, its roots, its stems, I feel it’s an extension of myself.”
“It reminds me of my childhood years, when I used to walk with my cousins, with my parents, in the beautiful gardens of Karachi, near the Arabian sea.
All places of this earth will give testimony of every moment our crown has touched the floor in prayer, in remembrance of God.”
“Palermo will testify that I have been so close to Allah through this place.”
Islamic traces
Photo, text and audio project based on photographs by Kate Stanworth and audio by Kate Stanworth and Giulia Liberatore, with the support of Stefano Edward Puvanendrarajah.
Islamic Traces follows a small number of Palermo's inhabitants – both Muslim and those of other faiths or none – as they search for remnants of the city's Islamic past. Through architecture, landscape, sensory experiences, religious practices, language and the arts, they bring their imaginaries of the past to life, recounting it and giving it meaning in the present.
Drawing on their own research and personal discoveries, the historical accounts they provide are infused with their feelings, narratives, forms of nostalgia, hauntings, resonances and sensory experiences. In doing so, they revive this Islamic past, emphasizing its centrality to present-day Sicily while also challenging dominant, linear, totalizing and objective modes of history-making.
The project was made possible thanks to the collaborations of Abdulkarim Fabio Crisà, Noemi Gaudesi, Boulallam Abderrahmane Mustafa, Sirus Nikkhoo Sari Ghieh, Tehseen Nisar, Stefano Edward Puvanendrarajah, Helena Russo and Cesare Tinì.
Listen to the interviews in Italian