French Institute
Damas street
- Espace des Lettres
Beirut
Lebanon
Project Presentation: A Universe Not Made For Us
Sunday, November 11, 2018 - 16:00 to 16:30
Zoukak Sidewalks 2018 - The Festival presents :
A Universe Not Made For Us
Project Presentation
By Yalda Younes and Khyam Allami
Sunday 11 November 2018 at 4:00 p.m. at the French Institute of Beirut
Entrance by Invitation only
As a part of Focus Liban, artists residing in Lebanon are invited to present their projects to a public of local and international curators. Yalda Younes and Khyam Allami will be speaking about their project : "A Universe Not Made For Us"
Synopsis
In the global context of chronic depression and massive political failures that the world is facing today, Younes and Allami explore a turbulent point in history from a tiny moment in the vast cosmic arena.
Through the unorthodox contemporary approaches to their respective Flamenco and Arabic music forms, their unique collaboration traces a confrontation between raw subconscious forces in a landscape of audio-technical vegetation. Constantly oscillating between differing perspectives, A Universe Not Made For Us is a microcosm of organized chaos, random interruptions, illusions of order and all the while, a haunting and inescapable yearning for stillness.
Credits
Live performance for dance / zapateado / oud / percussion / electronics
Dance / choreography: Yalda Younes
Live music / composition / sound design: Khyam Allami
Scenography: Hussein Baydoun
Live sound / technical assistance: Jawad Chaaban
Co-produced by AFAC - Arab Fund for Arts and Culture and Le Quartz - Scène Nationale de Brest (FR) with the support of Ashkal Alwan and One Hertz Studio (Beirut, LB)
Artists' Biography
Yalda Younes (b. 1978 Beirut) initially studied video art before dedicating herself to dance and yoga. She studied flamenco in Spain, mostly with Israel Galván, and later trained in yoga at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram in Chennai, India.
In her work, Younes extracts flamenco from its cultural background to (re)use it as an avant-garde form of individual expression. She has performed across the Arab world and Europe, and her works have been co-produced with various partners including Antipodes, Dansfabrik, Avignon, and Montpellier danse festivals in France.
Khyam Allami (b. 1981 Damascus) is an Iraqi multi-instrumentalist musician and composer.
Following the release of his widely praised debut solo Oud album Resonance/Dissonance (2011), he travelled tirelessly across Europe and the Arab world performing as an Oud soloist, a drummer in Tamer Abu Ghazaleh’s quartet, co-founded the band Alif and launched his record label Nawa Recordings.
He has composed for various theatre and film productions, most predominantly Leyla Bouzid's award-winning debut feature film As I Open My Eyes (2015). He is currently working on his second solo album Kawalees, exploring electroacoustic modernist approaches to the Oud and the Arabic maqam.
Zoukak Sidewalks – The festival 2018 is supported by: Drosos Foundation, AFAC – Arab Fund for Art and Culture, the Sundance Institute, the Goethe Institute, the British Council, the French Institute – Paris, the French Institute – Lebanon, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Beirut Office, Salon Du Livre Francophone.
Event Location:
