REDZONE Festival, launched in 2013, embodies our belief in the power of art as a means of expression and resistance and a tool to confront imposed realities. This annual and multidisciplinary festival, organized by Al-Mawred Al-Thaqafy (Culture Resource) in partnership with KKV,
advocates a critical approach to contemporary issues and features artistic works that focus on themes related to freedom of expression in arts and culture. Previous editions of REDZONE were held in Cairo, Beirut, Tunis, Tangier, Oslo, and the 2020/2021 edition was held online.
Culture Resource in partnership with Kirkelig Kulturverksted (Norway) organized the 20/21 online edition of Redzone Festival from 4 till 7 March, 2021, and invited the audience to explore the inner spaces that shaped us during 2020 through the eyes of the selected artists, whose perspectives oscillate between introspection and claustrophobia. In processing the collective experience of being disconnected, the artists shared calm and anxiety, creativity and emptiness, melancholy and anger.
Close Up
About Fiasco
by Nicolas Khoury (Lebanon)
“For half of my life, I used the camera as a confidant to film my video diary and my first amateur movies. This intimate film shows the strong and, at times, dysfunctional relationship that binds me to my mother and sister after the death of my father. My sister gets married and moves away from home leaving the single mother face to face with her son: “I don’t want your life to be a fiasco!” She tells me tenderly as I do not show interest in finding a wife. But her son is carrying a fear that she knows nothing about.”
Put the camera away, we are in lockdown
by Elsadig Abdelgayoum & Abuzar Adam (Sudan)
“We chose to face death with passion in order to document the 2019 Sudanese revolution. A year later, during the first lockdown of Covid19, we attempted to revisit the stories and footage we captured during the revolution. From January to April 2019, the Sudanese protest was in full swing. The people came out in large numbers and protested peacefully even as the violence against them escalated. On April 6, 2019, millions of Sudanese marched through teargas and bullets and occupied the area around the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum. We first met during the sit-in and joined forces to collect the stories from the people around us. Two months later we lost track of each other when the sit-in was brutally attacked by the former government militias. During the process of making this film together, we are shifting between defeat and victory. We carry the guilt of having survived and trepidation in stepping forward on this journey. It’s a mixture of joy, sorrow, dreams, disappointments, hard times and the miraculous moments of our unfolding friendship.”
Zoom In
37 views in isolation
by Zeina Salameh (Syria)
“After my first visit to the Citadel of Aleppo, my conversations with myself became a regular part of my day. During the lockdown, these dialogues multiplied and branched more than usual, maybe because of the free time, or due to the outpouring of ideas from different parts of the planet, or possibly due to the mixed feeling of fear and anxiety that kept fluctuating throughout my day.
Homesickness and nostalgia intensified, and I found myself constantly comparing the time of war with the time of isolation; which was better? Which was lighter on my heart and soul?
This self-seclusion transcended me home to Aleppo. I found myself recalling snapshots from my memory of my special relationship with the Citadel; “37 Views of Aleppo’s Citadel” was crystallized during lockdown – inspired by the series of Hokusai- it came as an answer to my questions, and as a result of my monologue, my quest to find the roots of my fear and hesitation.
The project depicts my intimate relationship with the place using a new style and technique.”
Dismantling
by Bassem Yousri (Egypt)
“I invite the viewer on a tour of my studio situated in the heart of Cairo, specifically the Abdeen neighborhood. I talk about my sources of inspiration. I am always interested in the relationship between the seemingly banal everyday events and the larger socio-political context. Furthermore, the city and our relationship to architecture influence how I think about my installations in space.
I also discuss how I develop a concept. When working on a new artwork, I often build upon a thread that started in a previous one. I follow it, and I create its world. I discuss the philosophy behind making ephemeral installations.
The year 2020 has been an unusual one. Maintaining an art practice with all the anxiety and uncertainty caused by the worldwide lockdown has been extremely challenging. The video shows the effects of this experience on my professional and personal life.”
Bodies in Virtual
Inside
by Taoufiq Izeddiou (Morocco)
“Spaces shrink, imaginations grow.
The doors of my presence are closed, the doors of memories open.
Plenty of time to have things in order.
I hear my inner voice talking.
Talking now after all this time of reaching out to me in vain.
I am sitting in front of it, day and night.
How tired it is of my insistent presence.
How I hear the sound of irony in its vibrato,
Making me understand that I am nothing and everything.
All the same now.”
LIVE/laɪv/
by Petra Serhal (Lebanon)
“In 2020, there was an excessive market demand to document live art and to stream performances online. I felt exposed to two kinds of pressures: to watch copies of performances – online – and not to move. In the coming LIVE /laɪv/ lecture performance, in collaboration with Martin Hargreaves, we will be discussing live art and its documentation, in relation to my upcoming dance installation If You Wish to See Me Dancing, You Ought to Visit the Passing Cloud. How can we create a live engaging experience with the audience via the virtual screen, and can art documentation become the actual work of art?”
Panel Discussion
Locked down to create
In partnership with Radio Alhara
Artists and promoters from Palestine, Tunisia, Iraq and Egypt are the guests of this panel discussion to talk about the effects of the lockdown on their projects, inspirations, and work.
What have they done while being cut-off from the world? How has this sparked or hindered their creativity? What takeaways could they share as lessons from this global yet very personal phenomenon?
Rasha Salah, curator and director of RedZone edition inner spaces will be moderating the discussion with the following guests: Khyam Allami (Iraq), Laila Soliman (Egypt), Manel Souissi (Tunisia), Yazan Khalili and Youssef Anastas (Palestine).
Music Session
NAY: Nature Addresses You
by Faris Ishaq (Jordan/Palestine)
“The nay is an ancient flute that dates back to 5000 B.C. As natural as the nay is, in order for its sound to come out, a consistent reflective connection has to be made between the nay, the player and the environment within which it is played. Playing the nay has always intensified my connection with my inner voice and has been my permanent companion in my journey of self-exploration and self-reconciliation.
The lockdown was an opportunity to slow down, comprehend the essence of what was happening and highlight the inner connection between oneself and nature as a vital part of us. “NAY: Nature Addresses You” is a journey narrated by the nay calling for self-discovery. Musically, I will shed light on the nay as a global flute, where I expand its performance from melodic to percussive and harmonic expressions. Moreover, the session will showcase my innovation of a new performance set that consists of playing simultaneously the nay, leg-percussion and frame drum.”
Special Mention artists:
Bouthaina Abdelaziz Ghribi (Tunisia), Chrystele Khodr (Lebanon), Gardenia Choir (Syria), Jihen Ben Chikha (Tunisia), Remi Sermini (Syria), Sofia Al Khyari (Morocco), Yasmine EL Meleegy (Egypt) and Sandy Chamoun (Lebanon).
Confinement artists:
Abdellah M. Hassak (Morocco), Ali J. Dalloul (Lebanon), Dana Dajani & Rami Kanso (Jordan), Hayat Hassan (Bahrain), Intissar Belaid (Tunisia), Mohammed Omran (Egypt), Salma Murad (KSA), Samer Bou Saleh (Lebanon), Samer Saidi & Myriam Geagea (Lebanon) Zahraa Ghando ur & Tarek Turkey (Iraq).
Culture Resource, in partnership with KKV (Norway) and in collaboration with DABATEK, Think Tanger and Cinémathèque de Tanger, organized REDZONE Festival 2019 in Tangier, Morocco from 3 till 6 October 2019.
This edition offered a new model for building local, regional and international cultural collaborations by programming artistic activities in the context of the city’s location at the fringe between Africa and Europe. It came as a response to an invitation from a group of independent artists and artistic and cultural organisations in Tangier to develop together a joint concept for this edition that will allow the interaction with the city’s vibrant and diverse audience.
“Migration and the City” was chosen to be the main theme as it is timely in the regional and global contexts and it is especially relevant to Tangier as a transit point that witnessed human migratory experiences throughout history. With this theme, the festival aimed to stimulate dialogue on the right of freedom of movement, the meanings of migration and exile, and the challenges of uprooting.
Live Performances
Slatucada
A percussion/performance band that gathers percussionists, dancers and musicians from the city of Sale in Morocco.
Nuit Blanche (Sleepless Night)
A play created by young theater director from Tangier Younes Daghmoumi and his troupe. The play tells the story of a 16-year-old girl who confronts her demons and finds herself on a path where choices are multiple and terrible for her age. She utters a soundless cry addressed to heaven.
Gesturing Refugees
Created and choreographed by Palestinian dancer and choreographer Farah Saleh and her collaborators, this interactive performance intends to archive latent stories of refugeehood through the bodies of refugee artists and those of the audience, and also by using other archive material and real or fictive testimonies.
Pores-traits
An in-situ creation that attempts a reconciliation with faces and old figures of the artist’s past through bodies that lend themselves to the adventure. It is a carte blanche offered to Jaouad Essounani, theater director and founder of DABATEATR, who invites some comrades in arms: stage poets.
Slumber
A live music show by the Egyptian artist Dina El Wedidi, from her experimental electronic album “Slumber” (Manam) that represents a short dream which takes place on a train traversing seven stations based on different themes.
Visual Art Installations
In Absentia
In Absentia is a project initiated by the Tunisian/French artist Wiame Haddad in 2017 consisting of a series of photos and conducted in two stages: the artist begins by creating sculptures portraying body fragments of former Moroccan and Tunisian activists and prisoners, using plaster and resin mouldings. In a second phase, she photographs these pieces that she displays in a pure and direct spatial setting. By displacing or isolating those body fragments, the images tend to reconstruct the bodies, in an attempt to make these invisible lives visible, and to seek through movement a way to escape from immobility.
Fluid Boundaries
By Katrin Ströbel & Mohammed Laouli
Video Installation, 2015
Morocco, France, Germany
Rather than simple lines of demarcation, Fluid Boundaries considers frontiers made of water as unique places where lives are lived, and where economies and specific thoughts or ideas are elaborated. Similarly to their mobile lifestyle as artists, Katrin Ströbel (Germany) and Mohammed Laouli (Morocco) travel from one shore to the other and build their boat in the public space in order to collect refugeehood testimonies and stories that serve as a starting point for their work. Through this project, the artists examine the cultural, social and economic impacts of colonialism and European migration politics in those in-between territories.
Workshops, walkscapes, mapping & talks
LEARNING FROM CAIRO, A Moroccan Perspective:
Towards a co-production of knowledge on informal urbanism in North Africa
Learning from Cairo is an exchange program that Think Tanger developed in partnership with CLUSTER, focusing on sharing knowledge and experience about informal urban practices in both Cairo and Tangier. It consists of several urban interventions between Cairo and Tangier. The first exchange session will take place in Tangier during REDZONE Festival 2019.
The objectives of this program are to develop a critical thinking about informal practices in urban spaces, learn from the city of Cairo as an open lab for informal urbanism while putting into perspective with the fast-growing city of Tangier, exchange tools of analysis and alternative research, develop a regional network of collaborative research and interdisciplinary practitioners, expand CLUSTER’s mapping and knowledge dissemination online platforms (CUIP and PILOT) in Tangier.
Film Screenings
Room for a Man
By Anthony Chidiac
Documentary, 2017
United States, Lebanon
In the apartment that he shares with his mother and his dog in the suburbs of Beirut, Anthony tries to reconstruct his identity through the renovation of his room. His homosexuality, disapproved by his conservative family, instills in him the desire to escape. But where to?
Central Airport THF
By Karim Aïnouz
Documentary, 2018
Germany
Berlin’s defunct Tempelhof Airport remains a place of arrivals and departures. Today, its massive hangars are used as Germany’s largest emergency shelter for asylum seekers, like 18-year-old Syrian refugee Ibrahim. As Ibrahim adjusts to his transitory daily life of social services interviews, German lessons and medical exams, he tries to cope with homesickness and the anxiety of waiting for the residency or being deported.
Derwisha
By Leïla Beratto & Camille Millerand
Documentary, 2019
Algeria, France
Derwisha is a neighborhood in the suburbs of Algiers. In the courtyard of a house still under construction, many people seem preoccupied. Women are doing the laundry, men are discussing a soccer game and children are running from one person to another. People do not stay here for a long period of time, in general, because the house is called “Guantanamo”. This transition place has also become an open-air prison for many migrants en route from West Africa to Europe.
In 2018, Culture Resource in partnership with KKV and in collaboration with Shams Association and Zoukak Studio presents REDZONE Festival in Beirut on May 3-8 2018, featuring five new works that have received the REDZONE exceptional grants in 2017.
I once entered a garden
A one-to-one interactive installation by Bissane Al Sharif (Palestine/Syria), Chrystèle Khodr (Lebanon) and Wael Ali (Syria). The project questions the first sexual experiences and the discovery of intimate life during times of war and peace in the Middle East. The work is based on the stories and memories of adults who lived their teenage years in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria.
Economy of Effort Pays the Price
An art installation by Mohamed Al-Masry (Egypt) based on the concept of using tanks as a model representing the entire system of industrialization and the consequent economic policies and political conflicts at the expense of many human considerations. The tanks also represent the sovereign, political, economic and elite approach that manipulates people and their destinies in order to find a market for them.
Hunna
A dance performance by choreographer Khalid Benghrib (Morocco) that deals with issues related to the body and women and the various forms of violations they are subjected to in the name of religion, society, customs and traditions. This performance is a continuation of Benghrib’s previous performance “Hum” and it may be considered as sociological research that aims to question the phenomenon of religious extremism based on dreams, art, mythology, religion, symbols and philosophy.
Jimi and the Saint
A musical concert by Jimi and the Saint (Egypt) to launch their first album, consisting of 5 tracks that tackle the ability of youth to express freely and challenge the socio-political barriers imposed on them. The music that the band produces is a mix between rock and electronic, and the live show is designed to deliver a unique blend of live music performance and visual programming which promises to be a unique audio-visual experience.
The Confession
This theatre performance, written by Wael Kaddour and directed by Abdullah Al-Kafri (Syria), takes us into a day of Jalal’s life, who is facing both his past and his new choices. It tells the story of the officer whose services were abandoned by the regime during the years of stable government control, and who was then asked to return to service after an uprising in the country. This offer awakens an old desire in him to regain the power he had for a long period, a period that he was attempting to forget after the regime had abandoned him and after having spent years with his nephew Omar, the promising theater director who is preparing a new play based on “Death and the Maiden” by Argentinian playwright Ariel Dourphman. The latter revolves around an ambiguous encounter between a former prisoner and a former executioner.