Abdullah Miniawy
presents Nigma Enigma
Fri 28 apr
THE BLACK BOX
20.30
World Premiere
The Egyptian expressionist, writer, chanter, composer, and actor presents the world premiere of his new work, which he envisions as, “an opera for Muslims.”
Miniawy has shared the stage with artists like Erik Truffaz, Kamilya Jubran, Yom, Médéric Collignon, and many others, and has performed on prestigious international stages and venues such as Festival d’Avignon, Institute of Contemporary Arts London, Haus Der Kunst Munich, the Louvre in Paris, and more. He has composed many different soundtracks for dance shows, theater pieces, and exhibitions, including Wael Shawki’s Cabaret Crusade III, AMDUAT by Kirsten Dehlholm, and Insurrection by Jilani Saadi. Since 2016, he has been collaborating with the German trio Carl Gari melding avant-garde electronic soundscapes with poetic lyrics. Their first record Darraje was selected as one of the best 50 albums of 2016 by National Public Radio in the USA. Their most recent output was part of the Berlin Atonal More Light compilation, and their AD93 (formerly Whities) six-track mini-album. The Act of Falling from the 8th Floor was featured by Pitchfork, The Quietus, and The Wire, while Resident Advisor placed track "Zawaj" among the best of 2019, topping the "Deep Listening" list. He also collaborates with producers Simo Cell and Hvad.
Besides his music career, Miniawy is an acting talent, playing the main role in Alaadine Slim's Tlamess. The Tunisian feature film was part of the Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) at Cannes Film Festival 2019 and won the award for the best full-length feature film at Kino Der Kunst 2020 as well as the Best Director Award at Marrakech International Film Festival 2020. He was shortlisted for the best actor award by Arab Cinema Center in Cannes in 2020. As a writer, his lyrics were spray painted in the Middle East during Arab Spring, notably in Yarmouk camp, Syria.
About Nigma Enigma, the artist says: “All these voices of exile are colored by the desire to feel again the depth of their culture. When you call a voice within you after years of disconnection, it is received in fractions. Like energy, it fades away. To gather them, we must re-tune them. To change an ideology, we have to invent new words that work with European listeners who are strangers to the Arabic language. It is both mantra and spiritual practice. By provoking the boundaries of my vocal range, expressing a dull pain through the years, I will take you on a journey out of your existential identities to where my mother always advised me not to go, to where the djinns used to orbit in the fields of Kiman Faris, far from my hometown of Fayoum, Egypt. The story of the songs is about a brave agnostic person who approaches the final judge in a court of Hell. All alone, he has strong reason: the absurdity of our reality, ecology, individualism, racism, and discrimination that forced him to forget all his beliefs to fit normally in a modern society. The show will be translated into English.”