Of Hauntings, Past, and Present: Sounds and Images from Beirut

19.10.2023 | 19:00 – 19.10.2023 | 22:00 CET

Malmö (SE)

This program brings together experimental audio and visual works from filmmakers, artists, and musicians based in the city of Beirut, Lebanon. In its exploration of sounds and images from a city in political and economic collapse, the program aims to cast light on the artists’ distinct approaches to the city’s past and present. Curated and presented by Rayya Badran, writer, editor, and translator from Beirut. This event is part of the Malmö Folk Festival.

TIMEZONES Beirut: Traces of a City – a Pod Poem (24’)

a podcast episode by Rana Eid and Nadim Mishlawi
TIMEZONES is an experimental podcast about artists and their practices. This episode is a reflection on the current uncertainties experienced in Beirut and how they have influenced creative processes.

commissioned by Norient and the Goethe-Institute https://norient.com/timezones ·
featuring Chaza Charafeddine, Muriel N. Kahwagi, Sharif Sehnaoui, and Rana Eid

Shabah El Rih (11’)

an experimental short film by Aya Atoui (film) and Anthony Sahyoun (sound)
Set in the abandoned historic landmark of Le Grand Théâtre des Mille et Une Nuits in Beirut, this experimental short stages a haunting ghost opera, an ode to a space for songs past and present.

Norient City Sounds: #BeirutAdrift (40’)

a virtual exhibition, curated and presented by Rayya Badran
This online publication by Norient (2022) presents a city that continues to witness an aggravating financial and economic crisis in the midst of prolonged political and social turmoil. The talented contributors of this virtual exhibition have responded to the sounds of the city through a generous collection of essays, sound pieces, mixtapes, photographic series, sound walks, and more. In Malmö, Badran presents her personal selection of #BeirutAdrift.

commissioned by Norient · https://norient.com/beirut-adrift

Not All Things that Shine Are Beautiful (5’)

an experimental short film by Nour Ouayda
Nour Ouayda takes viewers on a walk towards Beirut’s seaside. Her camera is oriented toward the city’s texture, light, and colors, zooming in on the mundane details as if unable to see the city as a whole or at once.

commissioned by Norient · part of #BeirutAdrift · https://norient.com/beirut-adrift

The Tidal Surge (9’)

a short film by Farah Awada
Farah Awada records the ebbs and flows of the city of Beirut during one of its most tumultuous periods. From the uproar of the 2019 uprising to the stillness of the global lockdown and the economic crises that took place in between, her video is a montage of sounds, images, objects, and people that populated her life during that time.

commissioned by Norient · part of #BeirutAdrift · https://norient.com/beirut-adrift

Topologie d’une Absence (29’)

a short film by Rami Sabbagh (video/collage) and Sharif Sehnaoui (sound)
musicians: Sharif Sehnaoui, Abed Kobeissy et Gregory Dargent
The only reason why moving images of Beirut from the 1920s still exist today is because they were filmed by camera operators from the French production companies Pathé and Gaumont. At the time, Lebanon was under French mandate, and these images were tools for shaping colonial imaginaries. They were restored and archived far from the places and people that appear in them. Combining music and film, this work proposes a new way of looking at this archive, a hundred years after unnamed camera operators filmed the city of Beirut and captured bodies, faces, and eyes.

moderation/introduction works: Rayya Badran, Beirut
overall duration: ca. 135 minutes
date: October 19, 2023, 7–10pm CET
venue: Inkonst, Bergsgatan 29, 214 22 Malmö, Sweden
free entrance

Rayya Badran is a writer, translator, and educator based in Beirut. Her writings and translations have featured in various publications such as Bidoun, Ibraaz, Art Papers, Norient, The Wire, and more. She has taught courses on contemporary art and sound studies at the department of Fine Arts and Art History at the American University of Beirut since 2014 and has a bi-monthly show on Radio al Hara.

Location

Bergsgatan 29
214 22 Malmö
Sweden

Norient x Radio X: Festival X_ARTS

20.10.2023 | 00:00 – 21.10.2023 | 23:59

Münchenstein, Basel (CH)

Norient wirkt am interdisziplinären Kunst- und Soundfestival X_ARTS mit. Festivalbesucher*innen können den experimentellen Podcast TIMEZONES entdecken und an einem Live-Talk mit Thomas Burkhalter, Leila Moon und dem Kollektiv Hybrid Project Space neue Ansätze für eine diversere und gerechtere Kurationspraxis kennenlernen. Das Festival, das Arbeiten und Live-Performances von rund 20 Kunst-und Musikschaffenden zeigt, findet anlässlich des 25-Jahr-Jubiläums des Basler Radio X in der TransBona-Halle auf dem Basler Dreispitz-Areal statt.

Seit April 2023 ist Radio X Partner von Norient: Das Basler Radio strahlt jeweils am letzten Mittwoch des Monats um 18 Uhr eine Folge des von Norient und dem Goethe-Institut co-produzierten Podcasts TIMEZONES aus. Am 20. und 21. Oktober feiert Radio X sein 25-jähriges Bestehen mit einem zweitägigen Sound-und Kunstfestival in der TransBona-Halle auf dem Dreispitz-Areal. Neben Live-Radiosendungen und Talks präsentieren rund 20 Kunst-und Musikschaffende ihre Video-Arbeiten, Skulpturen und (Live-)Performances zum Thema Transformation, Wandel und Utopien.

Norient lädt Festivalbesucher*innen als Kurationspartner*in an einer Hörstation dazu ein, durch ausgewählte Folgen in künstlerische Lebens-und Arbeitswelten weltweit einzutauchen. Zudem diskutiert Norient-Gründer und Direktor Thomas Burkhalter, Co-Autor des neuesten Norient-Buchs Politics of Curatorship am 21. Oktober mit der DJ, Musikproduzentin und Eventkoordinatorin Leila Moon darüber, wie Kurationspraktiken im Kulturbetrieb dekolonisiert und nachhaltig gerechter und diverser gestaltet werden können.

Norient is participating in the interdisciplinary art and sound festival X_ARTS. On October 20 and 21, 2023, festival attendees can discover the experimental podcast TIMEZONES and engage in a live talk with Thomas Burkhalter, DJ and producer Leila Moon, and the Hybrid Project Space collective to explore new approaches for a more diverse and equitable curatorial practice. The festival, showcasing works and live performances by around 20 artists and musicians, takes place on the occasion of the 25^thanniversary of Radio X at the TransBona Hall in Dreispitz area in Basel.

Das Programm im Detail

Fr·Sa 20./21.10. 13-22 Uhr
PODCAST Hörstation TIMEZONES

Was bedeutet es für Künstler*innen heute, in verschiedenen Städten, Ländern und Kontexten zu leben und zu arbeiten? Die Podcast-Serie TIMEZONES bringt persönliche, soziale, politische und intellektuelle Gedankenwelten von Kulturschaffenden rund um den Globuszum Ausdruck. Die experimentellen Audiocollagen bewegen sich zwischen Ethnografie, Fiktion, Klangkunst und Improvisation.

Koproduziert von Norient und dem Goethe-Institut.
Am letzten Mittwoch des Monats um 18 Uhr ausgestrahlt auf Radio X.
Sprache: Englisch.
Verfügbar auf Spotify, Deezer, Apple Podcasts.

Sa 21.10 13.30-14.30 Uhr
LIVETALK Politics of Curatorship: Wie kuratieren wir divers und fair?
mit Thomas Burkhalter, Leila Moon, Hybrid Project Space Collective

Auf Konzertbühnen oder in den Medien nehmen Kurationspraktiken Einfluss darauf, wen und was wir hören, sehen – und fühlen. Wie kann kuratorische Macht geteilt werden, um einen diverseren und gleichberechtigteren Kulturbetrieb zu ermöglichen?

Thomas Burkhalter, Gründer und Leiter der internationalen Plattform für Musikrecherche Norient. Burkhalter ist Mitautor von Politics of Curatorship, dem 2023 im Verlag Norient Books erschienenen Sammelband, der mit queeren, dekolonisierenden und persönlichen Interventionen von 32 Autor*innen den Kurationsbegriff neu erschliesst und einen grundlegenden Wandel im Kulturbetrieb fordert. Das neue Norient-Buch kann online und am Festival erworben werden.

Leila Moon aus Basel ist DJ, Producer, Songwriterin, Veranstalterin und pflegt eine Residency beim palästinensischen Radio Alhara. Auch sie spielt an der Afterparty im Rouine. In ihren eklektischen Sets durchmischt sie Disco, Funk, Afro-House und verschiedene arabische Genre-Strömungen.

«I constantly develop, so do my sets – the roots stay the same.»
(Leila Moon)

Hybrid Project Space ist ein junges Kollektiv, welches zu kuratorischen Prinzipien recherchiert: «Was macht Kunst- und Kulturräume unzugänglich und nicht divers? […] Wie setzen Kultureinrichtungen derzeit Zugänglichkeit, Vielfalt und Partizipation um?» Seit diesem Jahr veranstalten sie Workshops und gestalten Interventionen, bspw. während der Art Basel, den Kunsttagen Basel oder dem Kunstmuseum Luzern.

Moderation: Mirco Kämpf, Radio X

→ Mehr zum Festivalprogramm

Unterstütze das X_ARTS Festival mit einer Spende:

PC-Kontonummer: 19-169761-3 // IBAN-Nr.: CH 24 0900 0000 1916 9761 3 Zahlungszweck: Friend of X_arts Festival PC account number: 19-169761-3 IBAN number: CH24 0900 0000

Location

Florenzstrasse 13
4142 Münchenstein, Basel
Switzerland

Norient City Sounds: Delhi – Release Event

14.10.2023 | 18:00 – 14.10.2023 | 22:00 IST

New Delhi (IN)

To mark the launch of the Norient Online Special Norient City Sounds: Delhi, there will be a series of events starting off with the Release Event in Delhi. Hosted by Khoj Studios in Delhi, this will be an evening of responses, discursive presentations, talks, live performances and sets by some of the contributors in the edition.

The artists and participants of the event will delve into and further take off from the contributions in the Online Special and extend the dialogue into a wider public. The evening will spill over into a set of listening sessions, a community workshop and sound walks spread out across the weekend and beyond.

Detailed Program

Release Evening (Public Programme): Oct 14, Sat
Dawn Chorus Sound Walk (Registration based): Oct 15, Sun
Listening with Khirki (Community Workshop); Oct 15, Sun

Hosted by Khoj Studios in Delhi, this will be an evening of responses, discursive presentations, talks, live performances and sets by some of the contributors in the NCS Delhi edition. The artists and participants in the event will delve into the key provocation of the series and further take off from the contributions in the Online Special and extend the dialogue into a wider public. The evening will spill over into a set of live jams, a community workshop, and sound walk spread out across the weekend.

Discursives | Courtyard 5.30 to 8.00pm

Listening to a Chimera
Introductory notes by Suvani Suri, Curatorial questions, frameworks, and impulses.

Sonic Witnessing
A conversational session with Mithran Talitha and Geetanjali Kaita facilitated by Suvani Suri.

Dilli ki Sair meets Ghoomne Chalein
A performative exchange between Aabshaar Wakhloo and Afreen Akhtar.

While Afreen Akhtar’s sound piece Dilli ki Sair has been published in NCS Delhi, Aabshaar Wakhloo, a movement practitioner based in Delhi, has been working on a project called Ghoomne Chalein (Shall we Loiter?) with Katyayani Pant and Nagina.

Together the artists will be responding to ideas of gendered spaces, and questions around agency, bodies, and movement in public spaces, through their own practices and artistic formats

Voice and other ephemera
Anubhuti Sharma and Neelansh Mittra, both have contributed to the series and will set up a conversation that responds to each other’s pieces and practices that engage with acoustic memory, and tracing the sensorium of a city located in another time and place.

Songs of our times
A musical conversation between Sunayana Wadhawan, Devangana Kalita, and Natasha Narwal

Closing notes followed by Live Jams by artists in the upcoming compilation

Songs for a Tired City

In Plain Sight by Songs For A Tired City

Excise Dept