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Body Revolution

Mokhallad Rasem, Toneelhuis

On December 17th 2010 a young Tunisian street vendor called Mohamed Bouazizi set fire to himself in protest against the regime.

What followed was an extraordinary year of uprisings which broke out pretty much all over the Middle East, a wave of protest which was soon rather over-optimistically dubbed the “Arab Spring”.

Almost every country in the region had its version of this Arab Spring These (r)evolutions – which, sadly, rarely brought solace – have been given widespread coverage by the media in recent years. 

What effect have all these images on other theatre directors and performers who live here in Belgium but have their roots in Morocco, Tunisia, Iraq, Syria, etc. How does it feel? How as an expat do you process all the information that comes to you from family and friends who stayed behind? What does that information do to your body? How does the body react to violence and fear? 

Together with three performers, Mokhallad Rasem looks for an answer to these questions through dance. Body Revolution is a guerrilla version of a show: made and performed in a short space of time for a limited public.

As well as touring Belgian schools, social organizations and refugee centres, the production has been staged in Uganda, Morocco, India, the United Kingdom, Spain, Egypt, Belgrade and the Netherlands.

“When the place you know and love becomes unstable, you have to follow suit. Perhaps that is the power of change: not your own desire to score ever better, but a physical confrontation between your inner space and the big outside world. Mokhallad Rasem cleverly represents the clash in Body Revolution, a performance installation in which three mummified men move in and out of projections of trashed Arab cities. Their memory draws them back, but their need to survive pushes them away again. Thus Artefact does what you expect all art to do: it focuses our minds on a social issue by complicating it.” - Wouter Hillaert in De Standaard, 18th of February 2015

When the place you know and love becomes unstable, you have to follow suit. Perhaps that is the power of change: not your own desire to score ever better, but a physical confrontation between your inner space and the big outside world. Mokhallad Rasem cleverly represents the clash in Body Revolution, a performance installation in which three mummified men move in and out of projections of trashed Arab cities. Their memory draws them back, but their need to survive pushes them away again. Thus Artefact does what you expect all art to do: it focuses our minds on a social issue by complicating it.

Wouter Hillaert in De Standaard , 18 February 2015

concept, direction

  • Mokhallad Rasem

dancers / actors

  • Ehsan Hemat
  • Mostafa Benkerroum
  • Bassim Mohsen

video

  • Paul Van Caudenberg

production

  • Toneelhuis
  • Toneelhuis

coproduction

  • Artefact Festival STUK Leuven

All data

There are no upcoming activities for this event.

  1. Wednesday 19 November 2014 — 20h00 — Leopoldstraat 31a, Antwerpen
  2. Thursday 20 November 2014 — 20h00 — Leopoldstraat 31a, Antwerpen
  3. Friday 21 November 2014 — 20h00 — Leopoldstraat 31a, Antwerpen
  4. Wednesday 11 February 2015 — 19h00 — Stuk, Leuven
  5. Wednesday 11 February 2015 — 20h30 — Stuk, Leuven
  6. Saturday 14 February 2015 — 15h00 — Stuk, Leuven
  7. Saturday 14 February 2015 — 17h00 — Stuk, Leuven
  8. Saturday 14 February 2015 — 21h00 — Stuk, Leuven
  9. Sunday 15 February 2015 — 15h00 — Stuk, Leuven
  10. Sunday 15 February 2015 — 17h00 — Stuk, Leuven
  11. Tuesday 5 May 2015 — The Library of Alexandria, Alexandria
  12. Saturday 10 October 2015 — Corso, Berchem
  13. Thursday 5 November 2015 — De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam
  14. Friday 6 November 2015 — Korzo, Den Haag
  15. Friday 27 November 2015 — National Theatre Kampala, Kampala
  16. Sunday 29 November 2015 — National Theatre Kampala, Kampala
  17. Wednesday 2 December 2015 — Safi Festival, Safi
  18. Friday 4 December 2015 — VIERNULVIER/Theaterzaal, Gent
  19. Thursday 28 January 2016 — Fadjr Festival, Teheran
  20. Friday 19 February 2016 — 20h30 — De Werf, Brugge
  21. Saturday 27 February 2016 — Theater Malpertuis, Tielt
  22. Saturday 12 March 2016 — Theater aan het Vrijthof, Maastricht
  23. Friday 3 June 2016 — ACT festival, Bilbao, Bilbao
  24. Thursday 9 June 2016 — BABEL FAST Festival, Targoviste, Roemenië, Targoviste
  25. Monday 20 June 2016 — Rode Kruis Opvangcentrum, Sijsele
  26. Saturday 16 July 2016 — Ubumuntu Arts Festival, Kigali
  27. Saturday 6 August 2016 — 20h30 — Theater Aan Zee, Oostende
  28. Wednesday 10 August 2016 — Queer arts Festival, Antwerpen
  29. Friday 23 September 2016 — Bolzano Bozen, Italy, Bolzano
  30. Monday 26 September 2016 — 14h30 — Bourlaschouwburg, Antwerpen
  31. Tuesday 27 September 2016 — 12h00 — Bourlaschouwburg, Antwerpen
  32. Thursday 29 September 2016 — KASK, Gent, Gent
  33. Friday 7 October 2016 — A Corner in the World Festival, Istanbul, Istanbul
  34. Saturday 19 November 2016 — Carthage Theatre Days Festival, Tunis, Tunesië, Tunis
  35. Saturday 25 March 2017 — GC De Kluize, Oosterzele
  36. Wednesday 26 April 2017 — Theater an der Ruhr, Mannheim
  37. Saturday 23 September 2017 — 21h30 — Les Francophonies en Limousin, Limoges
  38. Sunday 24 September 2017 — 16h00 — Les Francophonies en Limousin, Limoges
  39. Saturday 21 October 2017 — Bremer Shakespeare Company, Bremen, Duitsland, Bremen
  40. Monday 23 October 2017 — Sens Interdits, Lyon
  41. Tuesday 24 October 2017 — Sens Interdits, Lyon
  42. Thursday 19 April 2018 — 17h00 — Kaszas Zaal, Budapest
  43. Saturday 6 October 2018 — Nuit Blanche, Brussel
  44. Monday 30 September 2019 — 20h00 — Youth Theatre Sarajevo, Sarajevo

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