The Circle & The Public Storyteller : Solo Exhibition, National Theater of Flanders, part of Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Bruxelles
(2024)- Abstract
- In 1974, amidst a hunger strike by undocumented workers in Paris, the Movement of Arab Workers created a singular political action: presenting a candidate for the imminent presidential elections. They chose a member of their Al Assifa theatre group, an 18-year-old Tunisian hunger striker using the pseudonym Djellali Kamal. The campaign was conceived as a public performance highlighting the denial of civil rights to migrants and projecting self-agency. Artist Bouchra Khalili now creates a video installation, consisting of two video works that form a unique dialogue reconnecting distant geographies and times. With The Circle, she reconstructed the incredible adventure of this powerful action from fifty years ago. With The Public Storyteller,... (More)
- In 1974, amidst a hunger strike by undocumented workers in Paris, the Movement of Arab Workers created a singular political action: presenting a candidate for the imminent presidential elections. They chose a member of their Al Assifa theatre group, an 18-year-old Tunisian hunger striker using the pseudonym Djellali Kamal. The campaign was conceived as a public performance highlighting the denial of civil rights to migrants and projecting self-agency. Artist Bouchra Khalili now creates a video installation, consisting of two video works that form a unique dialogue reconnecting distant geographies and times. With The Circle, she reconstructed the incredible adventure of this powerful action from fifty years ago. With The Public Storyteller, a new commission by the festival, she films a halqa, a centuries-old practice of public storytelling in Morocco, to people arranged in a circle. In this halqa, Djellali’s campaign is narrated by a storyteller in Marrakesh, implicitly forming a new circle linking the diaspora and North Africa. What does this gap between 1974 and 2024 tell us, a few days before a new election? How can invisibilised identities become visible? Khalili emphasises the importance of remembering past political strategies as a practice of intergenerational transmission for the present and future. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/b72af2e1-90b1-4a6d-b90f-4657dd141f75
- artist
- Khalili, Bouchra LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024-05-27
- type
- Non-textual form
- publication status
- published
- subject
- publisher
- Kunstenfestivaldesarts
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- b72af2e1-90b1-4a6d-b90f-4657dd141f75
- date added to LUP
- 2024-09-16 12:11:18
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 14:28:55
@misc{b72af2e1-90b1-4a6d-b90f-4657dd141f75,
abstract = {{In 1974, amidst a hunger strike by undocumented workers in Paris, the Movement of Arab Workers created a singular political action: presenting a candidate for the imminent presidential elections. They chose a member of their Al Assifa theatre group, an 18-year-old Tunisian hunger striker using the pseudonym Djellali Kamal. The campaign was conceived as a public performance highlighting the denial of civil rights to migrants and projecting self-agency. Artist Bouchra Khalili now creates a video installation, consisting of two video works that form a unique dialogue reconnecting distant geographies and times. With The Circle, she reconstructed the incredible adventure of this powerful action from fifty years ago. With The Public Storyteller, a new commission by the festival, she films a halqa, a centuries-old practice of public storytelling in Morocco, to people arranged in a circle. In this halqa, Djellali’s campaign is narrated by a storyteller in Marrakesh, implicitly forming a new circle linking the diaspora and North Africa. What does this gap between 1974 and 2024 tell us, a few days before a new election? How can invisibilised identities become visible? Khalili emphasises the importance of remembering past political strategies as a practice of intergenerational transmission for the present and future.}},
author = {{Khalili, Bouchra}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{05}},
publisher = {{Kunstenfestivaldesarts}},
title = {{The Circle & The Public Storyteller : Solo Exhibition, National Theater of Flanders, part of Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Bruxelles}},
year = {{2024}},
}