Ayur
Modernity was significant in shaping societies, and deciding what is to be defined as knowledge: in this process indigenous and popular knowledge were often consistently destroyed. Yet, these erased narratives still influence the present, towards local and global contexts.
Ayur is the second part in a trilogy focusing on the semantics and mythologies of the Imazighen, the indigenous people of North Africa. The whole trilogy centres on female figures, as guardians of the transmission of Amazigh knowledge. In Ayur, Radouan Mriziga honours the idea of transmission by creating a solo for the Tunisian choreographer and dancer Sondos Belhassen, who has been his dance teacher while he was living in Tunis. A work where the choreography emerges between the rhythm of the body and the one of the text, written with the poet Lilia Ben Romdhane and rapper Mahdi Chammen “Massi”. Ayur is the goddess associated in Punic Carthage with the moon.
Ayur is an invitation to perceive a choreography based on poems and raps as scores. Words and expressions as tools of symbolic, rhythmical and compositional meaning, not intended to explain the movements or suggest a linear narrative. The poems and raps hold their own meanings and nuances in the Tunisian language, and through the choreography, the gaze, the translations and rythms collectively build new narratives for each person individually.
Ayur is the second part in a trilogy focusing on the semantics and mythologies of the Imazighen, the indigenous people of North Africa. The whole trilogy centres on female figures, as guardians of the transmission of Amazigh knowledge. In Ayur, Radouan Mriziga honours the idea of transmission by creating a solo for the Tunisian choreographer and dancer Sondos Belhassen, who has been his dance teacher while he was living in Tunis. A work where the choreography emerges between the rhythm of the body and the one of the text, written with the poet Lilia Ben Romdhane and rapper Mahdi Chammen “Massi”. Ayur is the goddess associated in Punic Carthage with the moon.
Ayur is an invitation to perceive a choreography based on poems and raps as scores. Words and expressions as tools of symbolic, rhythmical and compositional meaning, not intended to explain the movements or suggest a linear narrative. The poems and raps hold their own meanings and nuances in the Tunisian language, and through the choreography, the gaze, the translations and rythms collectively build new narratives for each person individually.
CREDITS
Concept and Choreography
Radouan Mriziga
By and with
Sondos Belhassen
Support to the Research on Amazigh
Hajar Ibnouthen
Texts
Lilia Ben Romdhane
Mehdi Chammem « Massi »
Music
Mehdi Chammem « Massi »
Costumes
Anissa Aida
Space
Radouan Mriziga in collaboration with Flayou
Architect
Flayou
Video
Pragma Studio
Artistic Assistant
Maïté Minh Tâm Jeannolin
Production
Dream City
in co-production with
L’Art Rue
Moussem
Festival de Marseille
A7TLA5
Distribution
Something Great
Production Assistant
Synda Jebali
Traductions
Marwa Manaï
Lilia Ben Romdhan
Mahdi Chammem
Supported by
Fondation DOEN
i-Portunus
Mairie de Tunis
Technical partner
SYBEL Light & Sound
Thanks to
DEBO
Cyrine Boujila
Nawal Laroui
Leila Sebai
Manel Mahdouani
Mohamed Khalfallah
Zoubeir Mouhli
Wajdi Borji
Mehdi Ben Temessek
Ghilen Agrebi
Photographs: Ayur © Dajana Lothert