Jun 13 2024 1 mins
May amnesia never kiss us on the mouth: Only sounds that tremble through us is a multi-part research project examining how disintegrated communities bear witness to experiences of violence, loss, displacement and forced migration through performance. At CC, the work is presented as an immersive sound- and video installation consisting of three large video projections on freestanding walls and pulsating sounds.
Since the early 2010s, Abbas and Abou-Rahme have collected online recordings of everyday people singing and dancing in communal spaces in Iraq, Palestine, Yemen and Syria. Accompanied by evocative sound compositions and poetic texts in both English and Arabic, the work brings these recordings together with new filmic performances created in collaboration with local dancers and musicians from Palestine. The work takes on the character of a fragmented storytelling in sound and images, interweaving disparate stories, lived experiences and rituals across different territories.
The common denominator of these fractured communities is their efforts to resist their own erasure by laying claim to their right to self, space and collectivity. Zooming in on ephemeral bodily expressions and gestures, like singing or dancing, the artists pose the question: What significance lies in documenting sound and gesture through embodiment? In doing so, they point to the physical act of performance as a critical space for resilience and an ever-evolving repository of memory.