During August and September 2024, Atelier Kunstnerforbundet is proud to welcome artist and street performer Farah Azrak in residency on the occasion of Masahat festival 2024. Welcome Thursday 19 September for a conversation with Farah Azrak and Hamed Sinno at Atelier Kunstnerforbundet Loft!

The Masahat Festival for Arabic Art and Culture aims to present knowledge, history, art, and culture from the Middle East and North Africa. The theme for Masahat 2024 is ‘Protest’, and the programme will offer spaces to historicize, reflect, and organize, both within and beyond the streets, fostering communities built of friendship and solidarity.

Farah Azrak is a polyvocal artist and performer from Damascus, Syria, now based in Beirut, Lebanon. Farah is known for her interdisciplinary work in performance, collage, sound, poetry, and video. As a Somatic Movement and voice practitioner, her art is deeply rooted in the Body as a conduit for radical expression, resistance, and liberation.

During her residency at Atelier Kunstnerforbundet, Farah will focus on grief, conceptualized as a radical form of protest against oppressive systems. Farah will lead a workshop exploring grief as an individual expression through voice and body work. The workshop will guide participants in creating gestures, scores, masks, and costumes, featuring papier-mâché sculptures built by fellow artist Christa Barlinn Korvald, and culminating in a street carnival of grief at Eidsvolls plass on September 20 at 19:00, and at Grønlands Torg on September 21 at 15:00. Both events are organized in collaboration with Palestinakomiteen and Aksjonsgruppa for Palestina.

On Thursday 19 September at 19:00, Atelier Kunstnerforbundet looks forward to welcoming you to an Artist Talk with Farah and Hamed Sinno, moderated by Rana Issa, Artistic Director for Masahat. The talk will take place at Atelier Kunstnerforbundet Loft.

Hamed is a composer, writer, and performer that explores vocalities as sites of political negotiation. They have been the lyricist and front-person for the Lebanese indie-rock band Mashrou’ Leila since 2008, agitating conversations around representation, free speech, and sexual freedoms in the Middle East. Hamed’s debut opera ‘Westerly Breath’ opened in January 2024, was commissioned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and developed with support from The Industry's LAB 2022 Program – a performance platform supporting experiments in opera.

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Atelier Kunstnerforbundet Curator Martina Petrelli and Project Manager Anne Marte Archer wish to warmly thank Masahat Artistic Director Rana Issa, Managing Director Zeina Bali, and Project Coordinator Vjolla Emiri for this collaboration.