Tania El Khoury - Gulf Premiere
Gardens Speak
Interactive Sound Installation | Performance (separate English and Arabic events)
Friday - Monday, Apr 27 - 30 - Various Times
The Red Theatre
Past Event
An interactive sound installation sharing oral histories of ten ordinary people who were buried in Syrian gardens.
“even the dead will not be safe from the enemy if he wins.” – Walter Benjamin
Across Syria, many gardens conceal the dead bodies of activists and protesters who adorned the streets during the early periods of the uprising. These domestic burials play out a continuing collaboration between the living and the dead. The dead protect the living by not exposing them to further danger at the hands of the regime. The living protect the dead by conserving their identities, telling their stories, and not allowing their deaths to become instruments to the regime.
Gardens Speak is an interactive sound installation containing the oral histories of ten ordinary people who were buried in Syrian gardens. Each narrative has been carefully constructed with the friends and family members of the deceased to retell their stories as they themselves may have recounted it. They are compiled with found audio that evidences their final moments.
Working with the friends and family of the deceased, the stories have been carefully constructed to be retold as they themselves may have recounted it.
“This piece will change the way you think” – What’s on Stage
Watch the trailer
“Eerily absorbing” – Evening Standard
“Out of the most specific experience, Tania El Khoury crafts something massive.” -Paul Mason, Channel 4
Tania El Khoury is a live artist working in London and Beirut. She creates interactive installations and performances in which the audience is an active collaborator. Tania’s work has been shown in five continents in spaces ranging from museums to cable cars. She is the recipient of the Total Theatre Innovation Award and the Arches Brick Award. Tania is co-founder of Dictaphone Group, an urban research and site-specific performance collective in Beirut.
Awards
- Shortlisted for the Artraker Award 2014
- Artsadmin Artist Bursary Scheme, London, 2013
Recommended for ages 14+
Gardens Speak is a full body interactive experience containing soil, if you require special accommodation, please contact the box office on nyuad.boxoffice@nyu.edu.
Off The Stage events
Artist Talk with Tania El Khoury
- In partnership with the NYUAD Institute in collaboration with NYUAD Art Gallery
- Saturday, Apr 28 @ 6:30pm
- Click here to reserve your place.
Career Talk with Gardens Tania El Khoury
- In partnership with the NYUAD Career Development Center
- Monday, Apr 30 @ 6pm
- Career Development Center, Ground Floor C2, NYU Abu Dhabi.
Click here to sign up.
See the Library Guide click here