Reflections on the ASWAT Commissions

Dr Nora Laraki, Producer at Artsadmin, reflects on ASWAT Commissions, a three-day residency at Toynbee Studios as part of Artsadmin Lab. ASWAT Commissions was a collaboration between Artsadmin and Arts Canteen for AWAN Festival 2024. Five artists identifying as Arab Women were selected for the residency and received a £1,500 artists fee and producers support. The selected artists: Alia Hamaoui, Bint Mbareh, Jessica El Mal, Riwa Saab, Tasneim Zyada performed their work in progress at Rich Mix on 30 March.

As I stood in the bustling theatre space of Rich Mix, nerves and excitement swirling inside me, I couldn’t help but feel the energy of the moment. It was the morning of the ASWAT commissions showcase on the 30th of March, and we were doing our first-ever run-through of the entire event. Everything was in its usual state of chaos, but amidst the hustle, I felt a quiet confidence that the evening would unfold just fine.

In the afternoon, a long queue had formed outside of Rich Mix, stretching down the street and around the corner. The buzz of anticipation was infectious as people patiently awaited entry into the venue. Many arrived, protest signs in hand. As they gathered for an evening celebrating Arab women’s voices (ASWAT means voices in Arabic), it became evident they weren’t just there to see the performances, but to stand witness to our community’s resilience and resistance. A palpable sense of unity and purpose filled the air.

The showcase was the final event of this year’s AWAN festival – AWAN is an acronym for Arab Women Artists Now. Throughout March, the festival showcased the work of over 30 artists who identify as Arab women. “This year,” the festival team explained in the opening speech of the evening, “is more an act of defiance than a celebration as we stand in unwavering solidarity with the people in Gaza and Palestine.”

The event opened with Bint Mbareh’s solo performance, improvising a captivating soundscape with her voice. Soon, a community choir of 10 people joined her on stage. Together, they wove a continuous loop of a poem, listening and responding to one another. Bint’s community choir embodied her exploration of the powers of communal singing, a methodology to amplify each other’s voices through care and reciprocity.

Next up was Riwa Saab, with a multi-disciplinary performance drawing from the legacy of Asmahan, the renowned Syrian-Egyptian diva. Blending elements of gossip, politics, and storytelling, Riwa unravelled the layers of truth and myth around Asmahan’s life. Her work-in-progress served as a poignant exploration of authenticity, emancipation, and the ongoing politicisation of Arab women.

As we reached the midpoint of the showcase, the stage underwent a subtle transformation under the guidance of Heidi El Khlov. Pillows and rugs were spread out, flowers gently placed in a vase, while the lighting shifted to a soothing hue of pink. Introducing Jessica El Mal’s “Dreams of Jasmine”, an audio piece blending field recordings and musical elements, the audience was invited to join Heidi for a meditation on language, love, and loss. Poetry in Arabic, English, and Farsi filled the auditorium, and audience members found their way to the stage, settling in, creating a scene that resembled a living painting. The sun set outside, and for some artists and audience members who observed the holy month of Ramadan, it was time to break their fast. Heidi extended an invitation to a communal iftar, offering dates served on beautiful plates inscribed with Arabic poetry.

After the break, the space was set for Alia Hamaoui’s collaborative piece, devised with Will Pegna and Raheel Khan. Featuring Ronja Kasem, Sarah Ourahmane, and Olive Hardy, the performance unfolded with the performers dressed in Alia’s intricate wearable sculptures. As they navigated around each other, embodying friction and pressure, the lines between performativity and improvisation blurred within the space, evoking a sense of intrigue. Alia’s exploration in her practice delved into the intersections of politics and Lebanon’s rich history of heightened performances.

As the showcase drew to a close, it was Tasneim Zayada’s turn for the final performance. In a flowing black dress, she seamlessly blended into the backdrop, the spotlight highlighting her curly hair and calm face as she read her poetry, her hands steady with her notebook. Tasneim told us the generational stories of her family in her deeply personal and introspective work. “The third generation of Al Nakbar,” she began, “lives in Slough.” Unravelling the interconnected layers of her identity from her early childhood to becoming an artist, Tasneim reflected on the hypervisibility that comes with being Palestinian.

In the final moments of the showcase, all five artists gathered on stage, sharing the applause, exchanging smiles. I breathed a sigh of happiness and relief, grateful for the success of the event and touched to see all five artists standing together, having worked so closely with the group during the past few weeks.

The journey leading up to this moment was marked by collaboration, community, and yes, also challenges. At the end of last year, Aser El Saqqa, a dear friend and the Director of Arts Canteen, approached me to partner on the ASWAT showcase for the tenth iteration of the AWAN festival. Amidst the prevalent scarcity and funding cuts in the art sector, the idea of coming together to pool our resources and collaboratively create something greater than the sum of its parts resonated deeply with me.

Since joining Artsadmin at the end of 2022, I’ve made an effort to try and open the doors of this organisation to my community. A year later, as we collectively watched with horror and heavy hearts the events unfolding in Gaza, many Arab artists felt that institutional spaces for conversation, expression, and coming together were shrinking. By adding a residency to the ASWAT showcase, myself and Artsadmin’s Artist Support Producers, Valentina and Nene, wanted to provide emerging Arab artists with a space for sharing, cultural resistance, and peer support.

The three-day residency was held in late February at Toynbee Studios, a month before the showcase. As typical for our residency programme, we began with a community breakfast, bringing together artists, partners, and Artsadmin staff to get to know each other. Over the next few days, the five artists inhabited their own studio spaces, refining their ideas for the showcase. On many occasions, they came together as a cohort, exploring each other’s practices, offering an outside eye and encouragement to one another. And they also spent time with us, the Artsadmin team, inviting us to small sharings, chatting with us in the break room, and finding out what in our office – markers, post-its, papers, chairs – could be useful in their creative process. Valentina, Nene, and I were there every step of the way, providing producer support, mentoring, and a listening ear whenever needed.

Working with these exceptional artists and our partners at Arts Canteen has been incredibly rewarding. Every project presents its own set of challenges and learning opportunities for me as a producer. The ASWAT commissions provided a unique space for us to apply Artsadmin’s approach to artist care in a new context, allowing us to gain valuable insights into the flexibility required to support new ideas and evolving projects. Witnessing Alia, Riwa, Bint Mbareh, Tasneim and Jessica’s talent, resilience, and generosity in coming together as a group has been truly inspiring. As we look to the future, I’m enthusiastic about continuing to support emerging Arab artists and cultivating spaces for decolonisation, expression, and collaboration.