038 Urban Songline (ZamZam), 2016 – Marrakech Biennale 6, Marrakech, Morocco

Some Moroccans call the 10th day of Muharram, traditionally a day of celebration and joy, Zamzam Day. On this day, a national balloon fight takes place. This Urban Songline was executed as a choreography for ZamZam translating the pattern of holes in the medina wall in combination with the shapes of the resulting water-splashes as a score on a graphical synthesizer into music to which the dancers improvised. The resulting music is a joyful celebration of the relationship between the people and the public space of the city they live in.

This performance took place on February 26 at Bab Nkob, one of the Medina’s ancient entry points, as Parallel Event within the program of the Marrakech Biennale.

Dancers: Fouad Nafili and Chorouk el Mahati.

__________________________________________________

Part of the project Urban Songlines, a utopian/dystopian series of collaborative translations of buildings, urban structures and public spaces into music through site-specific sound-generation. These performances are a way of connecting to places by listening to them as well as a research into how we use and experience the public domain and to what degree we can claim ownership over it, discussing notions of inclusion, becoming and belonging.