Nouvelle Nahda - Episode 1



A coproduction of Theater am Neumarkt Zürich & Station Beirut: April 2020



LAUNCH PUBLICATION & ARTIST TALK >>> April 2, 8pm(MEZ) / 9pm(OEZ)



by & with Myriam Boulos, Nabil Canaan, Hayat Erdogan, Anna Hofmann, Sophie Krayer, Ayman Nahle, Yara Bou Nassar, Jeremy Nedd, Ibrahim Nehme, Antje Schupp, Nour Sokhon



>>> PUBLICATION NOUVELLE NAHDA



>>> TEASER



Nouvelle Nahda – A theater production that moves with the times

On April 2, 2020 the artistic team will launch an online publication to a theatre production that didn’t take place yet. On April 2, 2020 at 8 PM (MEZ) and 9 PM (OEZ) the artistic team will also go live in a streamed artist talk and talk about a theatre production and its ongoing process of becoming, in times of uprisings, revolutions and a pandemic and how these real events kept changing timelines and what it means to do arts in a world like ours.

With texts & artworks by: Myriam Boulos, Nabil Canaan, Hayat Erdogan, Anna Hofmann, Sophie Krayer, Ayman Nahle, Yara Bou Nassar, Jeremy Nedd, Ibrahim Nehme, Antje Schupp, Nour Sokhon

Nouvelle Nahda | Artists in Conversation

Six dialogues (15-30 minutes each), each by one Beirut artist as well as one Zurich artist, in which the conversation partners will challenge each other on the topics of „revolution“, „renaissance“ and „art“. The talks might be related to the work process or link to idols, inspiration from other artists or the own activism.




ABOUT



Imagine, you could influence the story of our future. Imagine, you could move others to do it with you. Imagine, there's a movement, that triggers social transformation through art. Would you join? Would you make a difference?


“Nouvelle Nahda” is the result of Neumarkt‘s first international coproduction: this time with the hybrid art space STATION Beirut. Drawing inspiration from its vision of „arts for social change“, the team worked with the concept of Nahda (Arabic: renaissance, awakening) as well as with the correlations between uprisings, creative means of protest and how or if art can influence societal change. “Nouvelle Nahda” aims at achieving an awakening in the individual, the people, the society, the arts.

At the start of the collaboration in May 2019, the team couldn‘t have known that on October 17th 2019 protests in Beirut would erupt — and would turn into a ongoing movement for systemic change. The piece deals with questions such as: How do real socio-political contexts and artistic actions inspire each other? How creative is protest and who is the artist in it? And what triggers the spark that turns an alliance of a few people into a movement? “Protest is primarily performative”, wrote art critic John Berger in 1968. It is the performance of potential power, the unfolding of the force of the protesters, a space of possibilities which opens not for the state or society, but for the protesters themselves. It is about visions, criticism, desires and dreams; and it is not performed for an imaginary Other, but for oneself, concrete and real. Self-empowerment for a maximum WE.

“Nouvelle Nahda” asks: “What if this line could start a movement? What if the movement could rewrite our story? What if the story could show us the way? What if the truth could unlock our throats? What if the song could cast a spell? What if the spell could break the illusion?” (Ibrahim Nehme, «7 Possibilities»)



©Myriam Boulos >> https://www.instagram.com/myriamboulos/

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