From Brussels with Love: report on performing arts in the Arab world
“The discussion held during this round-table not only mapped the current situation in the Arab countries after the Arab Spring. The participants’ testimonies also demonstrated the existence of a wide variety of possible artistic strategies.”
On 21 May 2016, a round-table discussion on the performing arts in the Arab World was held as part of the international visitors’ programme ‘From Brussels with Love’, organised by Flanders Arts Institute and Wallonie-Bruxelles Théâtre/Danse from 19 until 21 May 2016.
The topics addressed were theatre after the Arab Spring, the role of art in civil society and artistic strategies for building bridges, the challenge of international exchanges, and artists and their experiences. The discussion not only mapped the current situation in the Arab countries after the Arab Spring. The participants’ testimonies also demonstrated the existence of a wide variety of possible artistic strategies that can be developed by artists and arts workers, in order to take position in a rapidly changing, but continuously polarised society: from participatory practices to more ‘aesthetic’ approaches, injecting new perspectives through beauty. Important considerations were made with regard to the ways in which these collaborations should and should not be initiated and organised. After the individual statements and a discussion among the six participants of the panel, three artists were invited to join and add their perspectives. Each of them has a particular experience of working both in Europe and the Arab Region, consciously trying to connect both. Moderator was Toneelhuis dramaturge Erwin Jans.
Participants were:
- Lassaad Jamoussi, directing the festival Journées Théâtrales de Carthage in Tunesia, professor at the university of Carthage, and also an actor and a critic
- Nedjma Hadj Benchelabi is director of Ad’Hoc Platform, performing arts curator
- Mohab Saber, a theatre director and producer from Egypt, executive director of ElMadina, centre for performing and digital arts in Alexandria
- Omar Fetmouche, who works as an actor and theatre director and who founded Mouvement théâtral Ménaili, an independent theatre structure, also representing the Festival International du Théâtre de Béjaia in Algeria
- Ahmed El Attar, representing D-CAF, the largest contemporary theatre festival in Egypt
- Fadhel Jaïbi, director of the national theatre in Tunis
Artists were:
- Mauro Paccagnella
- Chokri Ben Chikha
- Youness Khoukhou
Read the full report of the round-table discussion.