Chantal Mailhac and Mona Hallab tell and sing on stage the story of Ba’al, the Phoenician’s “God of the rain, that climbs the clouds and come back with fertility; he lives above the clouds. During his time nature is green, colorful, full of fruits, flowers […]”
The night of the title refers to the winter solstice night, the longest of the year, before days start to be longer again. The tradition contains many points later taken up by Christianity (Jesus’ birth on the solstice and the death/resurrection process). Ba’al later became, as many gods with horns -he is associated with the constellation of Taurus-, one of the enemies of God, one of the ways to represent satan.
This performance wants to revive a story that has deep roots in Lebanese and Levantine history as well as in many places of the Mediterranean Sea, including Sardinia. In Sardinia the figure of the bull was one of the most widespread in antiquity, and it is the base today for some of the famous masks used for carnival rituals.
Thanks to the histrionic and playful storytelling of Chantal, the voice of Mona, the support of Patricia Habchy for the mise-en-scène and of Maya Aghniadis for the music composition, the legend of Ba’al came back to life and was told and sung in front of the audience of students, children and young adults.
Tarantism is the name of a traditional “magical-religious” music therapy practice once very common in Puglia and in the regions of southern Italy. The performance by Nivine Kallas, unfolds through a series of scenes narratively centering the human body and its struggle to face present time challenges As physical narrator and director Nivine Kallas says: “Tarantism is a performance that tackles an irresistible invitation to move, as a form of expression that can be violent yet therapeutic, now the pain is triggered pushing the body to face it is shadows.” A complex exchange of glances, a fight, a constant attempt to reconnect, to heal, all through a multifaceted dance, that combine different methods and techniques. Visual artist and musician Carlo Spiga has developed an unprecedented collaboration with the performers Nivine Kallas, Tracy Khoueiry, Sarah Almoneem, Sarah Mashmoushy and experimented with new ways of using launeddas, trunfa, and throat singing. These three elements are traditional instruments of Sardinian dances. During this residency Carlo Spiga had the chance to build a bridge between “Tarantism” and the Sardinian ritual named “Argia”, connected as well with the bite of a spider (the black widow) and with dance as a therapy practice. Photographer Sara Deidda is collaborating with the 8 artists in residence as well, thanks to a collaboration with Eja Tv, exploring day by day ways to film the performances and find a way to tell a story through images, rather than merely documenting it.
Okada Buluma (Nairobi, 1982) is a Social Practice Artist. He is known in Kenya and internationally for the quality of his work on behalf of children and disadvantaged youth. Over the years, Okada has experimented with creative educational methods centred on the needs of children, through the use of games and of playful learning practices. Cherimus has been collaborating with Okada Buluma since 2014 and together they have realized two major projects funded by the Sardinian Region (in application of the Regional Law of 11 April 1996, n. 19), ‘Ciak! Kibera’ and ‘Carnival! Nairobi.’ The collaboration also led to the creation, in Nairobi, together with Charles Nshimmy, of a wooden statue of Santu Jacu (St James), which was later offered to the community of Perdaxius.
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The residency starts with a visit at Museo archeologico nazionale, Cagliari, through centuries of history and intertwining Mediterranean cultures. Sphinxes and other artifacts found in Sardinia testify to the presence of the cults of Isis and Osiris on the island, while other funerary and quotidian artifacts are very similar to those on display in the museum. The visit continued with the Giants of Mont’e Prama, the sacred models of the nuraghi (ancient Sardinian stone structures), and the beautiful Nuragic bronzes statues.
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Workshop by Okada Buluma and Cherimus with a group of people living in the Casa Emmaus’ facility (Iglesias) from Egypt, Tunisia, Albania and Afghanistan. Okada invited everyone to write or draw something important to them, a memory, a dream. Stories emerged, sometimes linked to moments of the long journey that brought them to Sardinia, the nostalgia and longing for home. They then transformed these reflections into color and painting, and then a map of all their stories.
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Conference “Orizzonti di cooperazione”, Town Hall, Perdaxius Okada Buluma talked about his professional experience working with and educating kids who live in the streets of Nairobi: the building of a sense of trust through play, the uplifting of each person’s uniqueness and self expression, perseverance, and patience are the ingredients of a process that brought many children off the streets. After Okada spoke, Emiliana Sabiu & Matteo Rubbi, cofounders of Cherimus, talked about the projects Cherimus has developed with Koinonia Community in Nairobi, in which artists, musicians, and educators worked together in the communities of the children who live in the street to represent and give form to their dreams and their futures. Also present at the meeting were various institutional actors and representatives of local area associations who are interested in activating dialogue on the theme of educational poverty, centering the education and growth of all the components of community education: families, teachers, and educators.
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Workshop in collaboration with Elda Mazzocchi Scarzella association, Domusnovas. Okada, alongside Cherimus, held a workshop for a group of children, exploring the theme of tales and stories as the roots of one’s identity both as individuals and as a community. Some of the stories centered on the territory of Domusnovas, its caves, its mines, and its mountains. Others were classic fairy tales, and still others tales invented for the workshop. At the end of their time together, these stories, translated into a storyboard of drawings, were lined up and recombined by the children, giving life to a new story. Stories are a living language: they are games; they are the transmission and questioning of knowledge. Our stories grow with us.
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Visiting Barrancu Mannu, one of the most beautiful and magical archaeological and natural sites in Sulcis. Located near Santadi, the site houses a Tomba dei giganti and other remains from ancient times.
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For Easter Saturday, Okada Buluma, Emilia Brunoro and Fiammetta Caime worked together to prepare Chapati, a fried unleavened bread very popular in Kenya. As an accompaniment to this bread, ricotta was prepared with excellent thistle honey produced in Perdaxius, Sulcis cheeses and legumes.
Some images of the playful workshop that closed the week of Okada Buluma’s residency. The kids of Perdaxius gifted us with this explosion of colors, creating the shell of an alien dinosaur egg made of their drawings, which was shown to the community at the Park of San Leonardo. Thank you Comune di Perdaxius for making this possible!
So Close is a project by Cherimus and Espace Mass’art (Tunis), as part of the Tandem / Shaml – Cultural Managers Exchange program, an initiative of the European Cultural Foundation (Amsterdam), MitOst (Berlin), Al Mawred Al Thaqafy (Cairo) and Anadolu Kültür (Istanbul), with the support of Robert Bosch Stiftung (Germany), DOEN Foundation (Netherlands) and Mimeta (Norway).
The name of the project recalls the geographical proximity of the two associations as well as the need to imagine projects together despite the difficulties of exchange between cultural initiatives between the two countries, so close and so far at the same time, separated by a sea that wants to be a limit. impassable rather than a place for discussion and encounter.
The project freely uses artistic and theatrical workshops, music and improvisation to tell new stories that focus on the children of the neighborhood of El Omrane (Tunis) and the children of Perdaxius (Sardinia). Salah Hammouda, Hatem Boukesra and Sawsan Louati of Mass’Art, together with Matteo Rubbi, Andrea Rossi, Emiliana Sabiu and Carlo Spiga of Cherimus, carried out two weeks of workshops in Tunis (December 2014) and Perdaxius (March 2015). From the Tunis workshops was born an original song created by children and from the collaboration between the musicians Maurizio Marzo and Francesco Medda (Cagliari) and Amin and Aymen Makni (Tunis) entitled Aslema / Beslema. On the other hand, in Sardinia, the Teatro Forum show in Perdaxius was born based on the stories of the young people who participated in the workshops that debuted on March 18, 2015 in the town’s oratory. The musicians Maurizio Marzo, Francesco Medda, Amin Makni and Aymen Makni created the soundtrack of the show.
«And So We’ll End Up Singing» (“E così finiremo a cantare”) è il terzo ciclo del progetto Communities Between Islands, residenza artistica itinerante dedicata alla ricerca e allo scambio con la comunità locale, organizzata da tre associazioni culturali in tre isole del Mediterraneo: in Sardegna (Italia), in Corsica (Francia), e a Syros (Grecia).
L’ultimo capitolo di Communities Between Islands riunirà gli artisti e musicisti Lukas de Clerk, Maya Aghniadis (Flugen) e Roberto Casti in un viaggio che li porterà da Syros alla Corsica e alla Sardegna. I nostri artisti saranno a Perdaxius dal 9 al 24 Ottobre, portando avanti un lavoro che si concentrerà sulle narrazioni musicali attraverso le tre isole, reinterpretando la loro storia e cultura attraverso le lenti dei paesaggi sonori contemporanei, in un’anticipazione di possibili connessioni – passate e ancora future – tra di esse.
Durante la residenza gli artisti terranno dei laboratori aperti alle comunità locali e a chiunque abbia il piacere di partecipare, avvicinando il pubblico alla propria ricerca e pratica artistica.
Lukas de Clerk
The main topic of the project is the harvest of reed (Phragmites Australis) for fabricating Aulos reeds. The timing of the Syros-part falls right in the sweet spot of a late harvest for Aulos reeds. Also october would be acceptable time to harvest reed, so already harvesting reed in all 3 islands would be pretty magical. The part in Sardegna might be off course heavily inspired by the Launeddas. when we were with Luciano Montisci together, we brielfy talked about an Aulos-Launeddas fusion instrument… The ‘ghost’ of the Aulos, transforming the Launeddas could be a beautiful act of connection the islands. We could connect the 3 islands by way of a plant typical of the Mediterranean, reed, and a desire to make an Aulos with elements of all 3 islands. The caramusa in Corsica feels very related to the launeddas, but in the shape of the bagpipe. Lot’s of things to bring together hehe. Very quick and associative thinking right now, but it could help us to already think together towards some direction!
Maya Aghniadis (Flugen)
We are always ahead of time while planning life, we lose the precious moment of the present and we are rebellious with our past, constantly making amends. My idea for the creation of this sonic narrative revolves around elements of the past , present and future. A rhythmic play that challenges the feeling of time and soundscapes that send us to an ancient yet familiar place. The storyline will link the three islands and will also include elements from the workshops ; A superposition that combines three different groups of people, all performing on the same note and rhythm without meeting each other.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
A group of people was invited to the entrance of an abandoned mine. Everyone flew their kites, and the sky in front of the iron tower of the mine was filled with colors: for a brief moment, a lost place was revived. The action was then captured in a photograph.
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Cleo Fariselli Gigante Montagna
Coming from ancient folk tales, the Giant Mountain created during the workshops with the children was installed on holidays in the central square of the town. Inside, you could take refuge, play, write, and draw, like in a magical, forgotten time.
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Marco Colombaioni Maschere, autovolanti e macchine del tempo
During the Luna Park Party workshops, children created a fantastic world from the material they gathered, creating self-flying cars, roller coasters, colorful masks, water parks, and a time machine that was then made available to all during the days of the party.
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Derek MF Di Fabio Strumenti rumorosissimi
Reconstructing sounds that were lost who-knows-where; imagining a noisy burst of sounds from found objects used as instruments; trumpeting on a symphony of jars. During the workshop, the children of Perdaxius assembled materials they collected from the families, hypothesizing new uses for them and experimenting with new sounds. On the last day of the celebration, the whole town could hear their noisy parade through the the center of town.
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Giovanni Giaretta Cinema Perdaxius
With simple elements, such as shaving mirrors and small neon lights, rudimentary projectors have been built, a minimalist cinema. During the workshop with the children of Perdaxius, portraits of the aliens of the country were drawn, a parade of presences that are not there. On the days of the festival the silhouettes were projected in the library, which for three days became Perdaxius’s cinema.
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Leonardo Chiappini Origami
Small and large ducks, seals, colorful breeds, populate the square and the crevices of an ancient mud house in Perdaxius. Made during the workshop, the origami were arranged by the children all around their village.
Diego, second grade, has imagined and designed a time machine. The machine was built together with Marco Colombaioni and became an attraction of the the feast day of Saint Jamesfor many years
In 2014, the statue of Perdaxius’ patron saint, Santu Jacu (St James), was accidentally shattered during the yearly procession dedicated to him, when it got caught in a festival ribbon hanging over the street. The fall of the saint upset the community, who viewed it as a sign of future misfortunes.
The following May, while in Nairobi for the Darajart residency project, Cherimus decided to reinvent a new statue for Perdaxius with Nairobi-based artist Charles Nshimiyimana.
Once back in Sardinia, the sculpture was completed with the aid of the people of Perdaxius during Caro Giacomo 2015. The eyes of the saint are made of coal extracted from the mines of Serbariu in Carbonia, while his walking stick is made of wild olive wood.
Once finished, the statue was donated to the town of Perdaxius. The town, however, was reluctant to welcome it because of its Masai-like features and its unconventional clothes, which seemed to them more suited to a pilgrim than to a saint. Eventually, though, people started to pray in front of the saint.
In 2016, the statue was thus used for the first time for the festival of the patron saint’s yearly procession. During the 2016 festival of Caro Giacomo, Cherimus hosted Brera’s collective OUT 44 (Giorgio Cellini, Chiara Peru, Camilla Garelli), and visual artists Marco Pezzotta, Simone Berti, e Vanina Lappa. During the days of the festival we collaborated with Perdaxius-based association Su Nuraghe to design a new kind of pastry with the shape of a scallop shell (the symbol of St. James and of pilgrimages) to be offered to the inhabitants. From Dina Marongiu and the other members of the Su Nuraghe association, artists learned a traditional way to shape bread for special occasions (su coccoi) and an old way to bake it; they then designed breads with unexpected shapes, some of them resembling, in miniature, the saint’s new statue.
On the main evening of the festival, traditional poet and inventor Francesco Capuzzi sang a poem he wrote about the story of the new saint’s statue. The new poem was performed at Bar Trullu in the center of the town.
After the festival, the sculpture of the saint was placed in the old countryside church of St James, where inhabitants now often go to visit it.
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Dina Marongiu shaping the doughDina Marongiu of Su Nuraghe
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Marco Pezzotta with Derek MF Di Fabio
Chiara Peru, Miriam Calabrese and Camilla Garelli of the collective OUT44
They have found ancient documents about the birth of Perdaxius
They have found ancient documents. Due a flag placed too low…
The old saint broke into pieces due to a flag placed too low
Before the Roman age, here lived the Carthaginians
Before the Roman age, the new Saint was born far away, from a Rwandese father, in the land of Kenia
He spent his youth in the lake of Tiberias
Someone who saw him said he does not quite look like the old one
The must ferments bubbling in every tub
St James was born in Palestine, so tell me who is the right one?
