Arab Women Artists Now Festival

Arab Women Artists Now Festival
2 - 24 March 2016
A
rab Women Artists Now (AWAN) is an annual festival and celebration of Arab
women in the arts across a wide spectrum, as creatives, producers, writers,
filmmakers, performers, musicians and artists. Its exhibition at Rich Mix from 2 to 24
March 2016 and day-long conference and evening concert on 12 March show
off the powerhouse that London has become for Arab arts. Along-side these events,
workshops held at the Arab British Centre on 17 and 24 March encourage
cultural practitioners to compare experiences and discuss opportunities about
putting on and promoting arts from the Arab world in the UK and beyond. At a
time when the Arab world is undergoing turmoil and in some countries outright
war, Arab arts and culture have emerged as a safe haven for people of all hues,
political persuasions and religions. From Algeria to Sudan and places in between
offering home to the Arab Diaspora, AWAN is a platform for a multitude of
voices and creative expression. One conference panel discussion considers the
value of arts activism in war-torn Syria, alongside the Arabic folk and jazz by
the Tunisian singer, Ghalia Benali (born in Belgium), and the socially
provocative film Embargo by the Kuwaiti visual artist Aseel AlYaqoub. AWAN
brings together a wonderfully imaginative always-inquisitive Arab arts community
and showcases new work created, envisioned and produced by women.
Malu Halasa
2
Arab Women Artists Now Festival
Schedule of Events
džŚŝďŝƚŝŽŶƐ;&ƌĞĞͿ
2 - 19 March 2016
Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London, E1 6LA
dĞdžƚƵƌĂůdŚƌĞĂĚƐ
DĞnjnjĂŶŝŶĞ&ůŽŽƌ
ƌƚŝƐƚƐ
Meryem Meg (Algeria- Bulgaria)
Dima Nashawi (Syria) Nasreen Shaikh Jamal Al Lail (Saudi Arabia)
Hania Zaazoua (Algeria)
Takwa Barnosa (Libya)
ŶĂũĂnjĂŝƌŝ Exhibition and multimedia installation by Nadira
Amrani(Algeria)
džŚŝďŝƚŝŽŶƐΖĐƵƌĂƚŽƌEĂũůĂĂůĂŐĞůŝ
>ŽǁĞƌ'ĂůůĞƌLJ
12th March - Day Event (Tickets £3)
The Newspapers Dress, installation
by Fadila Aalouchi (Morocco-Belgium)
All Day
The Forgotten, installation
by Hala Yamlika (Syria)
All Day Venue 2, 4th Floor
Calligraphy artworks
by Joumana Medlej (Lebanon)
All Day Venue 2, 4th Floor
Registration & refreshments
10 am
Main space
Welcome, Anissa Msallem (MC)
Introduction to AWAN, Malu Halasa (writer & editor)
11am
Main space
Mots Pour Maux, Video performance + Q&A directed by
Sarah El Hamed (Algeria - France)
11.30am Main space
From East to West, CV video
Fadila Aalouchi
11.55am Main space
3
Venue 2, 4th Floor
Embargo, Film on censorship + Q&A,
directed by Aseel AlYaqoub (Kuwait)
Panel discussion
Challenges facing Arab women artists in the diaspora Panellists
Hannah Khalil (Chair), Playwright
Lamia Moulay, Dancer
Sarah El Hamed, Performance artist
Aseel AlYaqoub, Visual artist
Taghrid Choucair-Vizoso, Actor
Lunch Break
Music performance
Amira Kheir (Sudan-Italy)
Talk about IJAD Dance Company
Joumana Mourad (Lebanon-Argentina)
Kundara, Film on women fleeing the Middle East for Europe + Q&A
Silvia El Helo (Jordan)
Panel discussion
Artistic responses to the Syrian refugee crisis
Pannelists
Malu Halasa (Chair), Writer & editor
Yasmin Fedda, Film-maker
Dana Trometer, Film Producer
Raghad Mardini, Founder and Director of Art Residence, Aley
12 noon Main space
12.10
Main space
1pm
Main space
1.30pm
Main space
2pm
Main space
2.15pm Main space
2.45pm Main space
Tea, Coffee & networking
3.45pm Main space
Verr, Film on the fashion industry + Q&A
Nada Abou El Dahab (Egypt)
4.15pm Main space
4.30pm Main space
5pm Main space
6pm, Venue 1, 4th floor
7pm
4
8pm Main Space
8.30pm
9.30pm
11pm
11am - 1pm
11am - 1pm
2 - 4pm
5
Ruth Cook ©
Artists' biographies
Mots Pour Maux (Film) + Q&A.
Main Space 11.30am
Peter Bartlett ©
Sarah El Hamed is a French-Algerian performance artist who lives and works between
Paris, Algiers and London. She counts amongst her inspirations her North African heritage
as well as a diverse range of rituals and symbols either universal or specific to a certain
social group. El Hamed’s video performance, Mots Pour Maux, makes use of a variety
of different gestures found in the syncretic spirituality of various esoteric traditions. Her
performances, often interactive, are social experiments, existential quests in which the
audience is invited to participate, blurring the boundaries of suspended reality.
Embargo (Film) + Q&A
Main Space 12pm
Born and raised in Kuwait, Aseel AlYaqoub graduated from Chelsea College of Art
and Design, London with a BA in Interior and Spatial Design. After four years in the
architecture industry, AlYaqoub pursued a Masters in Fine Arts from Pratt Institute,
New York. She is currently based in London.
AlYaqoub interrogates official history by challenging Kuwait’s taken-for-granted cultural
and structural epitome. From her contestatory video work Embargo, (2014) – questioning
the reasoning behind the prohibition of filming in public spaces and local hierarchy-to the
microscopic stamp collection, Culture Fair (2015) created through the destruction of a
national artifact, AlYaqoub’s socially engaged practice aims to understand her national
identity through deconstructing and demystifying tools.
6
Celine Cruz ©
Music
Main Space 1.30pm
Tika Peucelle ©
Hailed as the ‘Diva of the Sudanese Desert’ (BBC World News), Sudanese-Italian singer
Amira Kheir has been enchanting audiences around the world with a sound inspired
by traditional music from her homeland, Sudan, and anchored in experimental Jazz and
Soul. The result is a unique style of ‘Sudani-Jazz’ that gives tasters of Sudan’s rich
musical heritage of distinctive Saharan blues, ancient Nubian and Nilotic rhythms, and
Sufi transcendetal melodies, whilst reflecting the artist’s jazz, afro-latin and neo-soul
influences, and expressing itself through improvisation, experimentation and magnetic
communication between musicians.
Kundara (Film) + Q&A
Main Space 2.15pm
Silvia El Helo is a theatre performer, translator, and an academic working with the
Arabic language. Based in London since 2006, she formerly worked intensively with
BELTS (or the Bratislava English Language Theatre Society) in Slovakia. She also
appeared in several productions of the alternative theatre ensemble STOKA, working
with the legendary director Blaho Uhlár, known for creating collaborative performances
by means of improvisation without specific goals set beforehand. She is the author and
director of a theatrical short entitled Shelter (performed in the Cockpit, 2013), about
women living in a refuge for those fleeing domestic violence. Silvia presents this lyrical
short film – Kundara – which follows the steps of a young woman fleeing the Middle East
into the shores of Europe.
7
Anna Michell ©
Verr (Film) + Q&A
Main Space 4.15pm
Nada Dahab is a British Egyptian creative living in London. Nada works across many
disciplines, from Fashion Styling and Art direction to the sessional tutoring of Fashion
Promotion students at the University for the Creative Arts.
Born in London, Nada was raised in Egypt till the age of 12, when she returned to
England with her family. She is heavily influenced by Surrealism and the black and
white ‘Hollywood on the Nile‘ films she grew up watching. Currently, Nada is studying a
Masters in Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries at Central Saint Martins.
Discussion on Ara-b-less + Q&A
Main Space 4.30pm
Riffy Ahmed is an award winning director, visual artist and filmmaker of dual Bahrani
and Bangladeshi heritage, born and now based in London. The dichotomy of belonging
to several places, and being perceived never as one or the other has been a love/hate
fascination for Ahmed. Working within film, video, performance, photography and
installation, Ahmed explores subjects around identity, memory, cultural narratives and
superstitions through filmic figures and storytelling devices. These blur the boundaries
of what is factual and fictional, creating new, uncanny and satirical spaces mediated
through the interactive nature of her work. In this session, Ahmed discusses Ara-b-less,
a collaborative project exploring notions of Arabness.
8
Poetry
Main Space, 5pm
Fatima Matar’s postgraduate studies in Law never could divert her attention from her
first love, art. “I paint in order to understand, I write in order to survive”, she explains.
Indeed, the sacrality of art as an expression of God is one of her core beliefs. Now
residing in Coventry, UK, with her ten-year-old daughter Jori, Fatima explores a wide
variety of artistic mediums, with canvas painting, performance poetry, mural painting,
and stained glass work.
Music
Venue 1, Fourth Floor, 6pm
Selected by the BBC as one of the most inspiring 100 Women globally, Bushra ElTurk’s music has been both performed and broadcast on radio and television worldwide,
including collaborations with the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony
Orchestra and the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. She has performed
in distinguished venues internationally. She is now artistic director and leader of
Ensemble Zar, a fresh, fearless, and experimental cross­genre ensemble whose mission
is to express the Middle Eastern artistic temperament in its rawest form. Ensemble Zar
performed for the Metta Theatre production of ‘Arab Nights’ (Soho Theatre) and played
the live score to the world’s first feature­-length silent film animation, ‘The Adventures of
Prince Achmed’ at the Southbank and Barbican - to much critical acclaim. Listen out for
Ensemble Zar’s recording in the new feature animation film of Gibran s ‘The Prophet’.
9
Michael Mogge ©
Installations (All Day, Venue 2, 4th Floor)
The Forgotten (Installation)
Venue 2, Fourth Floor, All Day
Joumani ©
Hala Yamlika is a contemporary visual artist, born in Aleppo, Syria and based in London.
Educated at the University of Aleppo and Birkbeck, Hala’s artwork crosses multiple
art mediums including photography, drawing and installation. She often focuses on
human psychology and taboo social issues, and uses these as conceptual basis for her
contemporary pieces. She is trying to explore the exchange between viewers and the
extraordinarily provocative presence of her artworks utilizing a site‐specific approach to
culture and history. Hala is an innovative user of material and incorporates uncommon
objects into her pieces, sending powerful messages. Hala remains a respected art critic
and has participated in numerous London exhibitions.
The Newspapers Dress +
From East to West
Venue 2, Fourth Floor (All Day)
and Main Space 11.55am
Fadila Aalouchi is a fashion designer working in Belgium. Her installation, The
Newspapers Dress, is entirely made out of personally collected newspapers, flyers and
documents about Palestine from 2009 to 2015.
Once you have seen it, you cannot unsee it. Certain events are written on your skin.
10
Calligraphy, Venue 2,
Fourth Floor, All Day
Joumana Medlej was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. A graphic designer by
training, with experience in print and multimedia, Joumana long craved for more
meaningful expressions of creativity. She received the essence of Kufic script, from
master calligrapher Samir Sayegh, through years of close collaboration. She learned to
breathe new life into a traditional art, not merely copying or reviving its old forms but
finding a contemporary language for it. She’s especially interested in the unique
relationship between Kufic and geometry, both sacred arts. Her work is less about
personal expression than about revealing hidden order, and the power of this medium
where form and meaning are one.
Main Space,
2 -2.15pm
Joumana Mourad is the founder, artistic director/choreographer of IJAD Dance
Company. IJAD embraces digital technologies in dance, creating performances
presented on three different yet interlinked stages (physical, digital-streamed and
digital-social) to create meaningful worldwide conversations, before, during and after a
performance.
11
Evening Artists
Main Space, 8.30pm
Ruba Shamshoum, a Palestinian musician born and raised in Nazareth, is influenced
by jazz, rock, hip hop and naturally by Middle Eastern music. She has been studying
and experiencing music professionally since 2008. Since then, she’s developed a wide
musical repertoire; writing and performing pieces influenced by Rock, Brazilian music,
jazz standards and contemporary jazz amongst other styles. Ruba currently lives in
Dublin, Ireland, and wrote the song Ya Leil La Trouh for Annmarie Jacir’s fil When I
saw You. Recently, she’s released other songs such as Fuqaati (My Bubble), with an
animated video in 2014.
Ruba will be accompanied by Orlando Molina on guitar, and will be performing her
original music in Arabic. Each song in the set tells a story and reveals both the fragility
and strength of the vocalist. Ruba’s music is a mix of jazz and pop wrapped in a Middle
Eastern vibe.
Main Space, 9.30pm
The wild and graceful Ghalia Benali is one of the musical surprises to emerge from the
Arab world at the turn of the millennium. Her fluid voice and compositions absorb a full
circle of wide influences from Arabic folk and jazz traditions to contemporary chill out
and Indian Classical music. She uses classical Arab language, where a word reveals its
numerous sides while being performed and interpreted to perfection by this great singer,
moving audiences and critics around the world.
12
Main Space 11pm-Late
Missy Ness is an artist with an insatiable curiosity living between Paris and Tunis. From
Tunisian roots, she grew up in the 18th arrondissement in Paris, and started table-turning
at the age of 16, sharpening both her technique and musical selections. The first female
deejay in Tunisia, she is renowned there as one of the pillars of the underground and
alternative scene. Her music, intimately related to the urban cultures, takes its influences
from the 5 continents, with a specific focus on Maghreb and Middle East, where she goes
on a regular basis looking for new sounds. Her sets are made up to build an atmosphere
more than a style, but she is known for her talent in communicating enthusiasm and
energy to her audience.
13
Exhibitions
Ana Djazairi
Lower Gallery
2 -19 March
Curated by Najlaa Elageli
Nadira Amrani is a British-Algerian photo-journalist and filmmaker interested in gender
identity and cultural structure. Ana Djazairi, which translates as ‘I am Algerian’ - is a multimedia project that explores the notion of the Algerian identity through film, audio and
photography. At a time when migration issues are being heavily discussed, the project
looks at the aftermath of mass migration from Algeria’s civil wars. The portrait photographs of Algerian migrants and the second generation seek to challenge stereotypes
of integration and cultural expectations whilst showing the variety of work and talent the
diaspora offers.
Textural Threads
Mezzanine Floor
2 -19 March
Curated by Najlaa Elageli
Work by Five Women Artists
Meryem Meg: From an Algerian-Bulgarian background, Meg is a multidisciplinary artist
with an MA in Graphic Design, who is currently working as a Designer with Nike, London.
Her work focuses on symbolism where she often finds herself exercising subconscious
healing through the depiction of themes such as fertility, birth and cycles within nature.
Meg’s passion for race, gender and identity surfaces within her work and she strives to
empower women by creating visual affirmations through her art
14
Dima Nashawi: Nashawi is a Syrian artist who believes that art goes hand in hand with
social activism and is a powerful means for peace building. Her life and work journeys
have taken her from Damascus, to Amman, to Beirut, and now London, where she is studying Art and Cultural Management at King’s College. With a BA in Sociology, Nashawi
also studied Fine Arts in Syria. Her work experience began as an art illustrator-animator
for magazines and online children sites; but, later, she took on social work with the UNHCR to help refugees in Damascus, who came from Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, Iran and
Iraq. Due to the war in Syria and found herself in Beirut working again with refugees,
this time with children and using art as a means of healing. Nashawi’s illustrations are
delicate, feminine, intricate and with many times a fairytale element to them. They reflect
on her personal experiences so far, her travels around the Middle East and always engaging with the deeper subject of human rights around the world.
Nasreen Shaikh Jamal Al Lail: Raised between Saudi Arabia and the UK, with an MA in
Photography, Al Lail seeks to find solace through her art where agendas of identity, self
and space are the tools of her practice. Her personal experiences have shaped the way
she perceives fluidity and dynamism of cultural identities. Her art attempts to understand
how interactions between collective memories of different cultures create a unique set
of problems for the individual. She has been exhibited in the UK and Saudi Arabia and
is also one of the Founders of Variant Space, a platform for emerging women Muslim
artists living in the UK seeking a discourse through the visual arts.
Hania Zaazoua: Zaazoua is an Algerian designer, visual artist and stylist. She is a graduate of Fine Arts and is the Design Director at Bergson & Jung in Algiers as well as having established her own interior design brand called ‘Brokk’Art’ in 2012. Zaazoua draws
her inspiration from her wanderings, whether real or virtual, to create work that is an
invitation to a teasing journey of the almost trivial dream world to exploring an alternative
version of the society that she lives in.
Takwa Barnosa: Barnosa is a young Libyan artist who is currently studying for her
Bachelors in Fine Arts at the University of Tripoli. She is a very talented calligraphy artist
who is venturing into the fusion of calligraphy with different forms of mixed media. Her
work is a response to her daily struggles as a female living in Tripoli and what this entails.
She seeks solace through her simple depictions of singular Arabic words that become
descriptive of her inner landscape as well as of her surrounding environment.
15
Panel Discussions
Challenges facing Arab Women Artists in the Diaspora
12.10pm
Panellists
Hannah Khalil (Chair) is a writer and a digital content producer. She has worked for
Whatsonstage.com, DEC (The Disasters Emergency Committee) and Rambert Dance
Company. She is currently working for the BBC on the About the BBC website and blog,
and is also responsible for About the BBC on other social media outlets including Flickr,
Periscope, Storify and Twitter.
Lamia Moulay was born in Algiers, and since her teens, has had a great interest in her
native culture of Music and Dance. She has combined her dance training and professional development with health and fitness courses in London, and has also developed an
interest in eastern disciplines. Lamia has recently begun teaching Hilal Dance classes in
London while continuing her professional training..
Sarah El Hamed Performance artist (see page 6)
Aseel AlYaqou
Visual Artist (see page 6)
Taghrid Choucair-Vizoso is an Actor currently working on At Home in Gaza and London, a digital performance piece linking artists between the two cities. She is best known
for her work on The Truth Within (2013), a dramatic story about the life-choices of the
thirty-year-old Lebanese Marwa
Artistic responses to the Syrian refugee crisis
2.45pm
Pannelists:
Malu Halasa (Chair) is a writer and editor in London. Her books include Syria Speaks –
Art and Culture from the Frontline (London: Saqi Books, 2014); Transit Tehran: Young
Iran and Its Inspirations (2009); The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie: Intimacy and Design
(2008); Kaveh Golestan: Recording the Truth in Iran (2007); Transit Beirut: New Writing
and Images (2004) and Creating Spaces of Freedom: Culture in Defiance (2002). Last
year Malu finished her first novel Mother of All Pigs. Her essays, publications,
exhibitions and lectures showcase the culture and politics of a complex and changing
Middle East
Yasmin Fedda is a documentary filmmaker and co-founder of Highlight Arts, an organisation which uses all forms of the arts to explore pressing and contemporary geopolitical issues, working with innovative and progressive artists from abroad and Britain.
16
Dana Trometer is a documentary filmmaker who runs the #FreeBassel Campaign for
the Syrian open web developper Bassel Safadi and trains media activists in the Middle
East region.
Raghad Mardini is the founder and director of Art Residence Aley (2012), an NGO that
supports Syrian artists and curates exhibitions and performances worldwide.
17
Workshops
AWAN 2016 Festival offers Arab women artists living in the UK three fantastic FREE
workshops, designed to enhance your career in the UK arts scene. All three
workshops will be led by experts in their field. Places will be allocated on a first-comefirst-served basis
To book a place, please visit Eventbrite.co.uk
Venue for all workshops: The Arab British Centre,
1 Gough Square, London, EC4A 3DE
Nearest Tube: Chancery Lane & Holborn
Digital Marketing Workshop
Thursday 17 March, 11am-1pm
This workshop aims to provide Arab women arts practitioners with insights and
practical tips into the power of digital marketing in disseminating and promoting their
work to wider audiences. The workshop is led by Hannah Khalil. Hannah is a writer and
a digital content producer. She has worked for Whatsonstage.com, DEC (The Disasters
Emergency Committee) and Rambert Dance Company. She is currently working for the
BBC on the About the BBC website and blog, and is responsible for About the BBC on
other social media outlets including Flickr, Periscope, Storify and Twitter.
Find out more at: www.hannahkhalil.com
UK Arts Infrastructure Workshop
Thursday 24 March, 11am-1pm
This workshop aims to give Arab women arts practitioners knowledge of the structures
and organisations of the UK arts scene. It will also give insights into how to develop
and maintain effective working relationships with these organisations. The workshop
is led by Oliver Carruthers. Oliver is Head of Programming at Rich Mix, an arts venue
based in East London, UK. Rich Mix has a programme of over 650 shows a year, with
a remit to deliver events that reflect the demographics of the most culturally diverse
area of the country.
Find out more at: www.richmix.org.uk
Career Development Workshop
Thursday 24 March, 2-4pm
This workshop aims to give practical advice and guidance to Arab women arts
practitioners on developing their career in the UK. The workshop is led by Dr Andrea
Giraldez. Andrea is the Director of Online Learning at Growth Coaching Online,
the division of Growth Coaching International. She also works as an independent
consultant for international arts education projects. She holds a PhD in Philosophy and
Education Sciences.
Find out more at: www.growthcoachingonline.com
18
19
AWAN is produced by Arts Canteen and supported using public funding by Arts
Council England